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Risk Factors of Human Cloning

Cloning is a process when a replica of another cell, organism or tissue is created. There are various reasons behind cloning; these include medical purposes, revival of an endangered species, reproducing a deceased pet and human cloning. The risks involved with human cloning may make some rethink whether this is a good time to make it an everyday practice.

  1. Low Success Rate

    • According to the University of Utah, cloning has an extremely high failure rate; only 0.1 percent to 3.0 percent of the attempts are successful. Two reasons behind such a high failure rate are due to an incompatibility of the egg and nucleus and the fact that the egg and newly developed nucleus may not develop or divide properly. When speaking of animal cloning specifically, the implantation of the embryo might fail or the pregnancy itself will fail. With such a low success rate, the money and time involved in this process, along with other risk factors, makes this a rather expensive experiment.

    Developmental Issues

    • Large offspring syndrome (LOS) is a condition where organs are abnormally large and can lead to complications such as breathing issues and blood-flow problems. These issues are dangerous to an animal’s health; coupled with the low success rate, the cloned animals that do survive tend to be larger and some have LOS. The surviving offspring that do not develop LOS often have impaired immune systems or kidney and brain malformations.

    Impaired Health

    • According to the Human Genome Project, cloned animals tend to have higher rates of infection as well as compromised immune function, tumor growth and other disorders. The life span is not verifiable at this time because a cloned offspring has not lived long enough to be researched. Studies in Japan have shown that cloned mice have extremely poor health and as a result, die early. It is difficult to determine how long a cloned offspring will live because even if the offspring appears healthy at a young age, this apparently is not a good indicator of long-term survival.

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