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Early streams of light tried to penetrate through the stretches of gloomy apartments into the dark alley. A gust of wind, which whipped through the deserted alley, carried pieces of newspaper and deposited them at the sidewalk. The headline of the newspaper stenciled in bold, black letters, read, " Irish Scientists successfully cloned a sheep." The cloning of Dolly had stirred the attention of people all around the world. It posed many questions concerning the cloning research. Should the government impose laws on cloning research? Should we allow cloning research to continue? Because this research could potentially save millions of lives, governmental laws should not restrict cloning research. 

The most widely held opinion among those who support restriction of the cloning research is that it violates ethical and moral values. Some believe that cloning violates the natural laws and would result in the loss of a person's individuality and uniqueness. Additionally, some believe that mutant forms of life may be created using the cloning technology. Another common argument against cloning is that the methods of cloning are highly unreliable. However, restricting cloning research would pose a great disadvantage and jeopardize scientific breakthroughs which could save millions of lives. 

Cloning technology has the potential for invaluable advances in medicine. The medical cloning technology has two big advantages: the creation of organs perfectly matched to the patient, and a solution to the chronic shortage of donor organs (Philadelphia News). The genetic composition of grown organs would exactly match those of the patients, eliminating the threat of rejection. Another potential use for cloning might be to fix defective cells and return them to the patient. Examples include growing new pancreas cells for those with diabetes and blood cells for those with leukemia. Cloning research has the potential to discover new treatments for degenerating diseases such as arthritis and cancer. Dr. Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute stated: 

" There are a number of genetic diseases for which there is no cure …and this will enable us to carry out research into causes of those diseases and perhaps develop methods to treat them." A cloned embryo, a twin, could possibly be used to save a person's life. One embryo could be implanted and allowed to develop into a baby, while the other is frozen. If the child later develops an illness such as leukemia, the frozen twin could be thawed and implanted into a surrogate mother to save the baby. Cloning technology " may have many medical benefits, including the development of medicines, therapies for diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis and diabetes, and prospects for repair and regeneration of human tissues" (Clinton). 

Restriction of cloning due to ethical and moral issues would hinder invaluable medical advances. Many scientists believe that cloning does not raise ethical issues " because you are not doing any harm to anyone"(Wolpert). In the 1960s, many believed that heart transplants were unethical (CNN). However, it has proven that even though heart transplants were thought to be unethical, they saved millions of lives in the past few decades. This evidence shows that hasty, irrational, unbalanced decisions to restrict cloning research may result in the loss of the opportunity to develop new treatments. There are a number of people who are worried about creating mutants using the cloning technology. However, the scientists noted that clones may behave and look just like the actual human. Therefore, clones cannot be considered as genetic mutants. Alan Coleman of PPL Therapeutics, commented on the Dolly’s cloning as "They behave like sheep, look like sheep. They are not genetic mutants." Some believe that if a person is cloned, he might lose the identity and uniqueness of an individual. However, if humans could be cloned, they would not necessarily be identical. Cloning humans could not produce carbon copies. Technically, a clone such as Dolly is created by transplanting DNA (or genes) extracted from the nucleus of the cell of an individual to the egg of another individual. The egg is not just an empty bag containing nothing but a nucleus, transplanted or not. It also contains structural and metabolic equipment, including a complement of extranuclear DNA specific to that individual (Hubbard). "As identical twins, clones will have individual differences, separate identities – separate souls"(Dixon). 

Cloning could improve agricultural and livestock farming drastically. On 13 March 1997 Genetics Australia announced that they had made almost 500 identical cow embryos from single fetus using this technique. Since cloning could increase the production of livestock, the problem of a shortage of food supply might be solved with the advanced technique of cloning. It could produce superior livestock in the process. Cloned cows or lambs have potential for producing large quantities of medically valuable human proteins in their milk. It has been proven that milk containing valuable human proteins can be produced by lambs whose cells are genetically manipulated (Scientific American). Additionally, the cloning of plants increases the productivity and quality of the product. The oil palm produced from the cloning produced 30% higher than plants produced from seed . Cloning could also produce plants which are less susceptible to diseases. The oil palm produced from the cloning is 50% more resistant to diseases than plants produced from the seed (Gall). 

The issue of the regulation of cloning should be considered after careful discussion. Facts, figures, and statistics must be carefully revised by both sides in order to reach to the final decision of choosing the best way to benefit human beings in the long run. Cloning research has many valuable medical and agricultural benefits. These benefits outweigh the disadvantages of cloning and prove that government should not impose laws which will hamper invaluable cloning research.