The high failure rate of experimentation in cloning thus far is something scientists cannot ignore.  In “Pros and Cons of Human Cloning,” Irving L. Weissman from Stanford University states:

Data on the reproductive cloning of animals demonstrate that only a small percentage of attempts are successful, many of the clones die during all stages of gestation, newborn clones often are abnormal or die, and the procedures may carry serious risk for the mother (1).

            The fact that few cloning attempts are successful is irrefutable, as it took more than 277 attempts before “Dolly” was created as a healthy viable lamb (Jones 1).  Going from this data, a human cloning attempt could mean hundreds, possibly thousands, of human embryos being discarded either because they would fail to develop fully or would be destroyed due to complications, all this before even one human could be cloned.

            With this in mind, many scientists argue against human cloning on the widely accepted ideal that it is unethical for scientists to experiment on live humans, “Practice, it is said, makes perfect.  But is it ethical to practice?  And I absolutely think it is not, in the human context,” said Alan Colman, researcher for Scotland’s PPL Therapeutics (Cohen 1).

Video Clip:  Reasons against human cloning - I am anti cloning

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