ABSTRACT
Human cloning was first widely discussed in the 1970s as a result of rapid advances in genetics. The appearance of Dolly, the cloned sheep, in 1997 unexpectedly made human cloning more realistic. As with all in vitro technologies, cloning raises concerns about physical damage to the embryo and health risks for women who undergo ovulation induction and surgical egg retrieval. Clones created by embryo cleavage may be gestated by different women or at different times, and cogestating multiple siblings will experience variations in uterine position, nutrition, and growth. Dolly the sheep heralds the possibility of cloning human adults, which is distinct from making identical sets of offspring who are only partly genetically related to biological parents. Clones might be produced for organ or tissue transplants. Clones would also seem more likely than other later children to suffer from the expectations to be just like the lost sibling, and they would bear the load of the parents' grief.
