Cloning of human embryos

Artificial human clones

Nature

Cloned human embryos in storage mean that a second embryo could be implanted later and born as the identical but younger twin of the first. Parents could decide to produce a family of identical twins all of different ages. The spare embryos could also be sold, as sperm and eggs are now, to couples who could see from the already born child how the purchased embryo might turn out. Human cloning raises ethical dilemmas for the medical profession and general public.

Background

Clones are genetically identical individual, which happens naturally in identical twins or triplets. In the cloning procedure that has long been applied to cattle, an embryo is divided into separate clusters of cells, each of which is the implanted in the womb and develops in the normal way. The cloning procedure for humans was devised to help infertile couples have extra embryos in storage and was first announced in 1993.

Claim

When you deliberately made copies of something, you lessen its worth. It is a dangerous turn to try to create the perfect child and then duplicate it. If the first child is not as wanted, do you throw away the cloned embryo ?