The past few decades have been filled with stunning technological advancement. But is all this "progress" good for humanity? Animal cloning has been a reality for decades but the disturbing experiments going on behind close doors will shock you. Human cloning may be much closer than you think. Because of recent technological advancements, the cloning of animals (and potentially humans) has been an issue. Many religious organizations oppose all forms of cloning. Judaism does not equate life with conception and, though some question the wisdom of cloning, Orthodox Judaism rabbis generally find no firm reason in Jewish law and ethics to object to cloning. From the standpoint of classical liberalism, concerns also exist regarding the protection of the identity of the individual and the right to protect one's genetic identity. Gregory Stock is a scientist and outspoken critic against restrictions on cloning research. The social implications of an artificial human production scheme were famously explored in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. On December 28, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the consumption of meat and other products from cloned animals. Cloned-animal products were said to be virtually indistinguishable from the non-cloned animals. Furthermore, companies would not be required to provide labels informing the consumer that the meat comes from a cloned animal. Critics have raised objections to the FDA's approval of cloned-animal products for human consumption, arguing that the FDA's research was inadequate, inappropriately limited, and of questionable scientific validity. Several consumer-advocate groups are working to encourage a tracking program that would allow consumers to become more aware of cloned-animal products within their food. Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, said that cloned food still should be labeled since safety and ethical issues about it remain questionable. Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, stated that FDA does not consider the fact that the results of some studies revealed that cloned animals have increased rates of mortality and deformity at birth. Another concern is that the biotechnologies used on animals may someday be used on humans. Some people may be more open to the idea of cloning of animals because most western countries have passed legislation against cloning humans, yet only a few countries passed legislation against cloning animals. Possible Abnormalities due to Cloning Researchers have found several abnormalities in cloned organisms, particularly in mice. The cloned organism may be born normal and resemble its non-cloned counterpart, but majority of the time will express changes in its genome later on in life. The concern with cloning humans is that the changes in genomes may not only result in changes in appearance, but in psychological and personality changes as well. The theory behind this is that the biological blueprint of the genes is the same in cloned animals as it is in normal ones, but they are read and expressed differently. DNA arrays were used to prove this claim in the research lab of Professor Rudolf Jaenisch. Jaenisch studied placentas from cloned mice and found that one in every 25 genes was expressed abnormally. Results of these abnormally expressed genes in the cloned mice were premature death, pneumonia, liver failure and obesity.

• published: 27 Oct 2013
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