Human cloning could have potentially devastating impacts on women. Unfortunately, the physical and psychological risks to women associated with both human reproductive as well as research cloning have received minimal attention in the current U.S. cloning debate. Current legislative approaches that encourage research cloning show a particular disregard for the serious implications of human cloning for women. Many who support reproductive or research cloning have been traditional supporters of womens health and reproductive rights. As indicated by the following summary of the negative impacts of cloning on women, this support for cloning is misguided.
Human Reproductive Cloning: Unethical Experimentation on Women
The application of reproductive cloning to humans is widely condemned. Advocates of womens health and rights should be particularly opposed to human reproductive cloning on the following grounds:
Reproductive cloning is an inherently unsafe technology that poses grave risks to women. Cloning of children requires the implantation of a cloned embryo into a surrogate mother. This procedure involves significant health risks to these women and the resulting children. Ninety-five to 98% of mammalian cloning experiments have resulted in the form of miscarriages, stillbirths, and deformities. Many efforts to