• Question: Thoughts on cloning? If you could be cloned, would you?

    Asked by smoosher to Alex, Amy, Andy, Georgia, Ollie on 21 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by samuelharrison.
    • Photo: Amy Reeve

      Amy Reeve answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Good question.

      I am not sure the world is ready for two of me!! and what if my clone was better! i don’t think i would like to be cloned.

      I don’t like the idea of cloning whole humans, especially for organ or stem cell harvest (like in never let me go). but i think this won’t happen if at all for a very very long time. I love the idea of cloning and bringing back to life extinct animals though (not dinosaurs!) I also think that cloning stem cells and organs for transplant within a lab is great, it will help cure really sick people and also solve the problems of tissue rejection etc. hope this answers your question. Would you like to be cloned? 🙂

    • Photo: Alex Munro

      Alex Munro answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      This is not a scientific answer, but no. The whole idea of human cloning makes me feel uneasy. Its just such an untested ‘thing’… at this point in time, does anybody really appreciate the consequences of cloning? We have no real understanding of what could go wrong; and once things are done, there may be no way of undoing them!

    • Photo: Andy MacLeod

      Andy MacLeod answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Hi there. For me, it depends on the circumstances

      I don’t think I’d like a new person to come about with my DNA. From a scientific perspective, it might be interesting to see how our lives develop differently, but personally, I would just find it a little too odd. Especially if he was younger than me.

      There is a large number of genetic studies that have been based on twins. Looking at identical twins who have been adopted by different families, we can see how genetics and environment effect how people develop. Identical twins are “natural” clones, that have the same DNA sequence, so if they grow up in different places, any differences between them would be down to their different environments. This helps us work out how much if each trait is down to genetics, and how much environmental.

      However, I’d probably be OK with organs grown from cells cloned from my body. If one of my organs stopped functioning and no suitable donor was available, and I’d be happy for doctors to do this, if it were safe and possible to do so. How do you feel about cloning?

    • Photo: Ollie Russell

      Ollie Russell answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Nice question!

      I think it would be really weird to be cloned! What if you actually made an evil clone of yourself and it went on a crime spree? How would you tell the police that it wasnt you when technically it was you that commited the crimes. This is giving me a headache 🙁

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