i think that God should be the one to decide who should live and who should die leave it up to God. people who mess with mother nature will burn in never ending hell fire!!!! FOR ETERNITY!!!!!!!!!! how people,animal's'tree's and the rest of nature are all creation's of the all mighty all mercyful God!!!! if there was sapose to be a double of anything, then God would have gave us twin's of everthing but as it happen's, we are lucky if we get a twin of anything so thank God for that, on that note i will leave it there!!!!

jesika, sheffield, england

Why not? If nothing else, it would be an interesting experiment.

Doug, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Adult stem cell research has lead to many medical advances. Embryonic stem cell research is a fruitless and labourious exercise which eminent scientists are leaving in favour of adult stem cell research which has no ethical controversies attached to it.

Dr Joaquin Ossa, Dover,

What is the problem? We need to look to the future and stop living in the moral dark ages, relying on books for guidance. Scientific research should be primary on mankind’s agenda. With global population booming, the last thing on scientist’s minds is to look for a cure for some sort of disease; when AIDS is an easy way out for overpopulation. People, better let a disease kill off the growing population rather than other humans. Think what would happen if there was a cure for cancer, AIDS and malaria amongst others. This might sound very cruel and evil but unfortunately, it’s the truth.

The next century will be a huge leap for mankind into the space age.

RK, London,

All of you who comment on another spelling and grammer mistakes are just petty and its ridiculous! i understand both sides of the argument, it will save lives, but what happens if we create a superhuman? One who brings an incurable and contagious disease! one that has no antidote and gives you only a few days of life!

Sian, Sidcup, UK

Brianna - 'If he was real and didn't want us to be able to clone than he would have not made it possible.'
What a most ridiculous statement. Does this mean that anything humans are able to do are all God's fault, because it is possible that we can do them?

Cloning humans is morally wrong, it is unacceptable that the government may allow this to happen.

Gordon Brown, London, UK

Ava, before you take time out of your oh so busy life to write your idiotic comments, maybe you should learn grammar. Do you even know how many people are in need of "offal" (as you say)? If you think God is real than you've wasted your time with "faith". If he was real and didn't want us to be able to clone than he would have not made it possible.

Brianna, Rolling Meadows, Il

Medical research is changing for the worse. Research into diseases and medical cures is fine; as long as human rights are respected along the way. However, cloning another living being is too far. It is unethical and is 'playing God'. And even if you are not religious, it can still be seen as wrong to use another person's DNA in that way.

PJ, London, UK

When does mankind learn? Science is not a gift and can hurt you! Has anybody used human offal in their lives? It is wrong and immoral. Does one have to sin to regrettably find that out?
This breakthrough needs some work. The non-human replacement is superior to the human offal being proposed. This need sense not nonsense.

Ava Tunney, Palatine, IL, United States

This disguists me. How is it unethical to clone human embryos for stem cell therapy, but seen as perfectly fine to do it to other primates?? It's hypocritical and completely abhorrent. It's time science faced up to the fact that other animals are sentient beings! We shouldn't do to others that which we wouldn't do to ourselves.
It makes me ashamed to be human.

Liv, NA,

This has gone beyond medical research/creating cloned stem cells and so on. This is about taking it a step further and cloning people. Who is funding all this research? When you clone (like Dolly) you are creating another living being that has feelings, emotions etc, so for someone to comment about having a clone so that they can use the clones organs to survive is despicable. One way or another if you are born you willl die, weather it be of old age or through illness. People and creatures should not have to suffer but this cloning business is going a step too far and living animals and eventually people will suffer through the research alone.

SM, UK,

I do not understand why some people are opposed to new scientific research/breakthroughs. If you do not want to use the new techniques, it is your choice to say no and not use it!
There are always some people that are against progress, but they do not realize that we would still be sitting in a cave and shivering without research etc! Just imagine the fantastic benefits we can get from research like this! I believe that we should spend far more resources on useful research like stem cell therapies.

Jan, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman

Of course humans will be next, if they have not already been used like this.

Absolutely appalling.

Rosemary Venner, St Neots,

I don't see what the problem is, eugenic selection has always been a part of life, given a choice the caveman clubbed the good looking girl to drag her off not her ugly mate.The same with many other factors ie heatlh, iq ect, there is one up side that no one seems to consider, in this day and age the very people who should be breeding are not due to many factors maybe this technology could reverse this trend cloning or otherwise. Then maybe we could have a more healthy and intelligent population, and most importantly for myself one that does not condone the pointless suffering of primates our near relatives or any other animal, in the name of science.
David ( Sheffield uk )

david calcutt, sheffield, united kingdom

Question: will curing illnesses using stem cell research make us a happier society? Over a century ago, people died from polio, scarlet fever, TB.... lots of cures and treatments were found. Very few people die from them now. We should have been deeply happy. The world should have been a new kind of utopia. Ah, but then, having cured those diseases we managed to find a whole lot of new diseases to kill ourselves: diabetes, heart disease, strokes. Stem cells are now the 'holy grail'; a promise of 'the fountain of youth' begin restored. If cures were found, would we be happy; satisfied? I believe the obsession with stem cell research is directly connected to the human denial of mortality; and the fear of being abandoned when sick. Quality of life comes from love of each other. Stem cells and the possible breakthroughs will simply not satisfy the deep yearning of the human soul for Life, with a capital L.

Catherine R.,, Cairns, Australia

It was my sincere hope that my country would not be as stupid as England, and introduce a potentially dangerous & destructive
power that if & will be abused would turn into "The Jurassic Park, see I told you so", that Dr. Michael Chriton tried to warn us about....Jimbo Corvallis
there are limits to what Science
will allow humanity to do...like
atomic power with Great Knowledge
comes Great Wisdom, & even Greater Responsibility. None of which you seem to personally have... If anything this, like global warming & potential Nuclear Warfare will most certainly &
eventually "run amock" with
the egos of scientists who do not
bother to ask, not if we can, but if
we should do this...Human Nature
has & never ever will change....&
It is the Doom of mankind that
we forget this...

GIL, USA/TX

GIL, Nederland, USA/TX

Scientists playing god? Well, somebody has to.

colin, london, england

I don't know whether this is a good or a bad thing but I do know that, science and technology are racing ahead and will continue to do so whether we like it or not. We have to make sure that our other institutions: legal, spiritual, philosophical and moral, can keep pace with technical advancements; otherwise things won't be for the better, they will be for the worst.

Cirep G Nol, London,

Ok, I've been diagnosed with MND which I'm fighting like crazy-last year I was given a prognosis of 2-5 years. I am becoming slowly paralyzed and can see my body disintegrate before my eyes and I can barely type this because my hands are becoming weaker through muscle wastage. Don't people understand that stem cells could create motor neurons, could create lab conditions where neurons could be made and experimented upon to find a solution to this utterly devastating disease? How would opponents to stem cell research like to share my terrifying fear of the future? What future? Come on scientists please please get moving!

HM, London, ~Surrey

Does the Human Race not consider that whatever Greatness of Intelligence cause the Planet(s), the Galaxies and the Universe and all upon and in it to exist, that it thereby says that it doesn't need any help by way of genetic/embrionic engineering or interference from the very people it put here in the first place? Is this just a simple case of ignorance, or just ego in the face of such Greatness?

Tarni, London, UK

Serious problems with this technology:
-women must "contribute" i.e. sell their eggs, risking physical and psycological harm to themselves
-some human cloned embryos will certainly be implanted in human wombs at some point (who could stop this with the materials being so small and the incentive so great)
-why would one want to stop at the embryonic stage and grow colonies when a replica could be grown with formed transplantable organs
-creating and growing human beings to kill them and harvest their organs makes us much less human- some acts are intrinsically evil
-all this money could be better spent on cures for malaria, chagas, TB, HIV and help for the poor who will be devastated by global warming.

Jean Gaes, Crofton, MD USA

Dang Dee you are smart, and I totally agree with you.

Ben, Durham, USA/NC

The world is working together in co operation on these plans. Stem cell treatment is a breakthrough in science, but obviously it destroys hope of a God? In what context can humanity define life, and in some respects death. That is the aim of medicine.

Although synicle in itself to think of such outbreaks in medicine, should the world not be cautioning other matters at the moment such as climate change. It looks as if society is reaching a pinicle point in its progress to reaching the future. For some reason however people are looking into how to live longer and longer, but the strain on the worlds infrastructure.

Religion in itself will condemn this as it always has, but religion has a big implication on stem cell surgery, for religion is life for many people. Religion is hope in the world? That it is lived with morals and just arguements. However stem cell surgery brings these moral rightousness' out of turn and would put too much trust in humanity itself.

Jas, Birmingham,

Would god have made us intelligent curious people if he didn't want us to research this stuff? Surely this is all part of the overall plan isn't it... I don't know, but surely god made us with the capacity to help ourselves in area's like this.

Jakcboy, london,

There are certain things to consider when sitting in judgment over a subject of ethical / moral concern. You cannot "un-discover something," once it has been discovered it is there for all to use or abuse. I recall the arguments over the atom and hydrogen bombs and how we would destroy our planet earth. Admitedly we still might but it hasn't happened yet and we have learned to live with it.

What is it that we fear about cloning? If the clone is not "viable" or more importantly not "fit" (that is capable of producing progeny that themselves are able to reproduce) then it will simply not evolve. If it is "fit" then it will have earned its place in the evolutionary course of this planet.

PhD student, Sheffield Hallam University

C F J Simpson, Sheffield, UK

Cloning is absolutely incredible. I know that when I'm old, I'd love to have a reserve of my own cloned organs that I can draw from when my current organs start to give way. But on a less selfish note, having the ability to save lives in general with new parts is such a worthy cause. Being able to restore function to people with spinal injuries or degenerative diseases would be simply fantastic. It's not playing "God" at all. It's using our amazingly evolved intelligence to make the world a better place for everyone. In fact it is almost unfathomable to think that a bipedal mammal (us) has evolved such intelligence as to simply build a motor vehicle let alone clone himself genetically. At risk of sounding insane. . . GO HUMANS!!!

Phil, Apple Valley, California

Ok. Cloning humans should NEVER be used to make a living human being. The furthest human cloning will ever go should be thereputic cloning - making organs out of stem cells for transplant. What everyone who is protesting about cloning doesn't realise is that, if it ever works, it could save so many lives. How many people die while on the organ transplant waiting list every day? How many lives could thereputic cloning save?
And, no offense, andrew wicksey, Wiarton, Ontario, but, if you want to be taken seriously, you should check your spelling. Type it on word and paste it here if you must.

Becca G, Woking, UK

This is great that we are making progress in cloning even if it is a monkey. There are too many diseases without cures and if stem cell research helps this than go scientists go. Thousands of children and adults have uncurable diseases, I dont think they are playing god just assisting them, so this a a leap for mankind.

Dee , Philadelphia, PA

Cloning is the most stupid thing ever there is no way that the purson cloned will ever be the same. there really in no point to it, and we are not "God" we sould not try to do his work, he dose a good job as it is and we should not try to do what he started. Who are we to sat that we can make life, or take it. thats right we can't. death is a part of life. when we leav we should not be live agine on this earth, for ir is unjust.

andrew wicksey, Wiarton, Ontario

The poor monkey looks desperately unhappy.

Julia Iskandar, London, England

Cloning is not a bad idea, what is a bad idea,I think, is to try to play God.Cloning a monkey, food, and undoubtably one day the cloning of human organs I believe is fine, but I don't believe we have the right to duplicate someone elses work.When I say that I'm referring to "God".I'm religous,and I'm proud of it.Their's a saying,"If you give a man an inch he'll take a mile".But what if man had the power to make life?Undoubtably, he would think he could take it away.

Beonka, Tulsa, Oklahoma

This is extremely bad news. I'm not religious and don't have any belief-based views on cloning, my background is in science and even I can see the dangerous implications of this technology for future society. The super wealthy are probably having a party about this right now. Goodbye democracy.

Eggwis Jones, London,

Hurrah for Oregon Science !

In just 10 yrs since Dolly, we stand on the precipice of the greatest step forward in medicine since MRI & DNA, and one day the science textbooks will point to this as THE breakthrough which allowed human embryo cloning, and the resultant curing of the great diseases of mankind.
The only dour notes are the whining, hand-wringing, wimp scientists, who pissed & moaned how `impossible' this would be, instead of getting on with it, and, the almost inevitable tirade of religonists who will condemn it.
The only thing inevitable about science is that it will progress.

Jimbo, Corvallis,