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Before we can consider the ethical problems related to the cloning of animals or humans we need to define what we actually mean by that. The presumption is that a clone is the exact genetical double of the donor; in reality it is unlikely that any animal that has been called a clone thus far is actually the exact genetical duplicate of its progenitor.

Clones are created by extracting the nuclear DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of an animal, or plant for that matter, and implanting it in the enucleated ova (egg) from another animal or plant. Enucleated simply means that the nuclear genetic material within the egg has been extracted. This process does not extract the mitochondrial DNA within the ova. The mitochondrial DNA of the original animal is not transferred so the clone has the mitochondrial descendants of the host animal rather than the original donor animal. As such, it is not strictly speaking an exact genetic double.

These are, however, practical rather than ethical problems. Just because the so-called clones are not exact duplicates of their donors does not mean we can ignore the ethical questions raised by the concept of cloning.

The ethical issues do not arise from the process of cloning, they arise from the uses we might put such cloning techniques to and whether we should be using them at all.

There are certainly many benefits that may be accrued through the use of cloning, to human medical capabilities, for agriculture in improving the productivity in crops and herds, and potentially in returning the genotype of a deceased animal to the gene pool for an endangered species.

If cloning was used altruistically in these situations and purely for the benefit of humankind and the environment, it could be legitimately argued that there should be no objection. Unfortunately the world is not such an idyllic place. In a capitalistic world profit is the prime motivator, whether or not this has long term benefits to humanity.

Cloning technology has been advocated as the potential cure for human famines, saving critically endangered species and most significantly in the Western world, providing replacement organs for those humans needing them. Replacement organs that are genetically compatible so that immunosuppressive drugs are not required for the rest of the lives of their recipients, as they are now for those receiving transplants from the relatively few amongst us that register ourselves as organ donors and the even fewer whose wishes are actually carried out by

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