Contrary to popular belief, cloning is not the idea where a person is placed into a large metal machine with colorful flashing lights and an exact replica of them comes out the other side. Cloning is actually a complicated scientific procedure where an egg cell, with its nucleus removed, is combined with another nucleus from a different cell of the same species. After Electrical Fusion and chemical activation the egg can start dividing, creating embryonic stem cells ready to be transported into a surrogate. In short, two cells are combined and grown to be planted into a female form of the species in order to be born as a new version of the creature whose cells were copied.

Additionally, there are two different types of cloning; Reproductive and Therapeutic. Reproductive cloning is the process that ends up producing a living product. In comparison, the more popular Therapeutic cloning is where embryos are cloned, but later destroyed. This is generally used to attempt developing therapies for stem cell research.

Although no proven human clones have been created to this day, animal cloning has proven many faults and perks, which most likely would prove true if humans were to be cloned as well. With this, there are several negatives with the idea of human cloning. For example, there are very poor odds that the genetic information used will be turned into a real, living, breathing clone. One example of this was when they were trying to clone Dolly the sheep, the first successfully cloned animal, the scientists started with 277 harvested cells. From these, 29 grew enough to be transferred into a surrogate mother, and eventually only one was successfully born. In fact, now there are only two to five percent of the eggs that are successful in creating the intended product, which is an alarmingly low number. In event that a clone is properly produced, severe defects cause hundreds of them to die weeks or even days after birth, showing that the odds when cloning are slim to none in some cases. In fact, around 25% of cloned animals have problems after birth. Furthermore, stem cells, which have been said to be able to grow back tissue or cure diseases, have little to no proof of being successful in most cases. There are no definite facts proving that this research is leading up to many of these amazing miracles. In the light of there being no proof of this, the real issue in therapeutic cloning is that it is destroying human embryos and killing unborn humans. The controversy is over whether or not this is ethically and morally right. It is also an issue as to when or if the embryos get the right to live as humans. No matter what view one takes on this, it is impossible to doubt that this is destroying embryos that have the chance of becoming living and breathing human beings.

Despite the fact that cloning at this point may seem awful, with nothing good about it, there are several positives to what is being done, but at a cost. One example of a perk when cloning is the idea that it is just another form of reproduction. Some people say that there is no difference between sexually creating a baby and to produce a baby through cloning. Technically, most of the time there would be no genetic difference between a baby born in more common ways than a baby born through cloning. Couples may also use cloning as another form of reproduction if they have known risks of passing genetic disorders and do not want to put this burden on their children. As well as that, there is a possibility of medical breakthroughs with stem cells developed in therapeutic cloning that can lead to curing diseases and helping people already affected by illness. For example, there is talk that a man who loses his fingers due to something such as hypothermia may be able to grow them back with the help of research done through the ideas of cloning.

Going back to the seemingly positive aspects of cloning, they are not as perfect as they may seem. Those awfully high statistics don't just mean a low success rate. They also show an extraordinarily high death rate of unborn embryos, fetuses, and newborns. Even if a clone is successfully born, there are very high risks of physical disorders or issues throughout its life. Although it may seem like a great way to eliminate issues of illness for high risk couples, it could cause more damage than it seems or that is intended. Plus, with high risks of up to hundreds of deaths of unborn embryos or fetuses of the species cloned it is questionable whether cloning is worth the issues it possesses.

To conclude, although both therapeutic and reproductive cloning may seem like a great possibility for the future, it poses a great risk in several ways. From the deaths of unborn embryos, to the danger of life threating illnesses, it is not a proper or ethical solution for the future of humans for reproduction or curing illnesses until a time where major improvements can be made.