Okay, what's the big deal? Scientists have now cloned a sheep from cells from an adult sheep. This means that most likely, we could now clone a human from cells from an adult human. So eventually I could have kids who were just like me. Now they'd still have to be born and raised just like any other kids. While it would be kind of weird to have kids who were identical to each other and to me, it wouldn't really any different from having twins. In fact, it'd be just like having twins. So are twins awful monstrosities that bring an end to civilization? I don't think so.
The really neat thing about cloning humans from adult cells is that if we continue researching it, we could probably clone individual organs from adult humans. Now that would be useful. Imagine organ transplants that aren't rejected because they're your own organs! But now, everyone is so scared that scientists will start wontonly cloning everyone in sight that we have a moratorium on human cloning research until such time as Clinton and Congress decide on how the country should react to human cloning. These guys are going to determin the ethics of cloning? Heh... For some reason, I find that highly amusing.
Every day they hold back research is another day that folks will be without vital organs.
I realize that this is not a simple issue and that there are ethical questions, but the simple act of creating a clone is really not a big deal. What we should be worrying about is the developments in genetic engineering and in mapping the human genome. While these are incredibly important and useful technologies, they bring up a lot of serious questions. When we can fix genetic defects, who determines what's a defect and what's not? Should parents determine the sex of their children? Their eye color? Hair color? Height? Etc... These are the questions we should be worrying about.
Now Europe has banned cloning of humans. Germany did not join the ban because they already have stronger bans on any kind of research with human fetuses. England is not banning cloning and is, in fact, continuing to research human cloning. Good for them. This kind of technology has such promise for improving life that it must be researched.
Well, the debate still rages with the United States Congress looking to ban cloning and cloning research with the media acting like they're saving us from an abomination. Meanwhile, morons in Italy are going to try cloning humans. If it goes anything like the cloning of animals, many will fail to be born and those that are will be defective, aging quickly and dying of weird syndroms. This will only fuel the fire and lead to more restrictions. Then, when my organs start to fail, I'll die because researchers will not have been allowed to develop organ cloning techniques. And I'll be pissed at the short-sighted ignorant public and the wishy-washy Congresscritters who go whichever way the polls blow.