I agree with that, bigshug.
We'd basically be interfering with evolutionary processes & natural selection.
The first big problem I have is the way in which the egg is 'harvested'.
An unfertilized egg is taken from a female donor, its genetic material is sucked out & replaced with the new DNA {cell nucleus}.
Each egg is an individual.. you could be sucking out the genetic material of a genius.
This egg may only be permitted to develop for only a couple of days before it's implanted in a host womb.. eggs, if left in their natural environment take years to develop.
In clinical conditions, it only takes moments to unite an emptied egg & the contents of a cell.
This is where the problems are occuring.. researchers suspect that by rushing things, it leads to many subtle gene changes that can cause the resulting embryo to fail to develop normally.
Another problem scientists noticed while cloning animals is that the cells weren't going onto the division process on their own.
They were placing an unfertilized egg cell with it's necleus* DNA sucked out, along side the other cell & zapped it with an electric pulse to fuse them together.
A second pulse was then used to mimic the burst of energy which is similar to the energy during 'natural fertilization'.
This is how they were jump starting the cell division process.
The problem they realized was that the zap shock doesn't fully mimic the activation process of sperm soOo what does that give us?
Mutations.
Cloned animals thus far have had physical & developmental problems such as obesity, lung problems, arthritis, difficulties with organs or neurological development, immune system deficiencies, heart defects & have shown signs of premature aging.
Not only that, it takes many attempts.. most which end up as still births.
Having this knowledge of cloned animals, do we put cloned children at risk for gross abnormalities in the child's hormonal system.. which could erupt.. or subject them to a life that could include grotesque weight gain?
Dolly's life span was shortened.. accelerated aging.
She was cloned from six year old cells.
It would stand to reason that if her aging was accelerated, a cloned human's life most likely would be shortened by the amount of time the nucleus has already spent as an adult.
I guess the real question is, how many human mess*ups would be acceptable in the name of science..
Every scientist has a lil Frankenstein in her.. or him
As far as cloning humans.. I'm 100% against it.