Cloning - society views

Some may ask if cloning is unnatural. It’s not at all. Some organisms in nature only reproduce using cloning - not only bacteria and yeasts, but also larger organisms like some snails and shrimp. Because in nature sexual reproduction is the only way to improve the genetic stock of a species, most asexual species tend to die off, but at least one; a shrimp called Artemia perthenogenetica has survived for at least 30 million years. Many more species, including the aphid, reproduce by cloning most of the time, only reproducing sexually every few generations. Perhaps one-day humankind may follow their lead.
Many wonder if someone could clone a horrible tyrant such as Hitler and they just might be able to. They might, but they might not find exactly what they are looking for. First, they would need some living cells from his body; unless it was frozen or otherwise preserved soon after death they would probably be unusable. More importantly, because of differences in the environment of the womb and upbringing clone Hitlers would not act, think or even necessarily look like the original.
Another thing to ask would be; could a clone be made of a person and then harvested for its parts. This is a possibility, yet there is a slight chance that the body will still reject the part. There would also be a long wait for the clone's organs to mature enough to transplant, and of course your actions would be highly illegal unless your clone was willing to act as a donor as a clone would be just as human as you or I. Even leaving aside the ethical concerns, with the progress that is being made in understanding and coping with tissue rejection, you would be more likely to have a pig's heart in your future than a clone's.
Another question asked was whether a clone would have a soul. That is an easy question. If you grant souls to identical twins and to the various kinds of "test tube babies" already being born then it follows that a clone would have a soul too.
The most common question asked is; would scientists be able to clone a human with no consciousness so that we could harvest without the clone knowing about it. No. For starters, whatever consciousness is, it doesn't reside in any one brain structure or set of genes that could be easily removed from the clone before or during its development. Moreover, attempting to surgically or genetically erase someone's "consciousness" is itself morally dubious. It would also be hard to know if your "technique" worked. A person can look and behave like a mindless vegetable but have a very active mind. An example of this is the paralyzed French writer, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who dictated a 130-page novel by moving an eyelid.
Could vital organs be grown without the host body? This could be possible, but nobody is even close to knowing how. Contrary to scientists' expectations, the birth of Dolly, the sheep that was cloned; shows it is possible to reprogram the cell of an adult so that it begins development all over again. This newly discovered flexibility means it may one day be possible to reprogram skin or blood cells so that they grow into "spare part" tissues and organs, rather than whole organisms, but the technical obstacles will be huge.
In closing I would like to say that though controversy surrounds cloning I think that cloning could be a good thing in the future.