ABSTRACT
Cloning is an asexual reproduction technique that has been successfully used to reproduce genetically identical plants and nonhuman animals such as the late, famous sheep Dolly, cloned in 1997. Some political leaders, including Presidents William J. Clinton and George W. Bush, have called for either a moratorium or an outright ban on human cloning. Reproductive cloning is designed to bring about the birth of a baby. Some proponents of a permanent ban on even safe cloning argue that reproductive cloning would be an affront to the sacredness of the sexual union of a loving couple as the cause of human reproduction. Proponents of a permanent ban on therapeutic cloning often contend that even in cloning an early pre-implantation embryo, a researcher brings into existence something that, under the right conditions, would develop into what is indisputably an individual human being, with rights that deserve to be protected.
