Why human reproductive cloning should not in all cases be prohibited.

The dominant reaction to recent advances in cloning technology has been a strong desire to prohibit all human reproductive cloning. A frequently mentioned concern of those who would ban all such cloning is the high rate of waste of oocytes, embryos, and fetuses.1 While this concern is valid, these remarks will focus on potential uses of human reproductive cloning after research with animals and human embryos provides reasonable scientific assurance that, if attempted in humans, it will efficiently produce healthy human offspring. Once the scientific community reaches that level of certainty, society should permit human reproductive cloning as an alternative or supplement to the services and techniques currently available to deal with infertility, such as in vitro fertilization, egg donation, and artificial insemination.2