Question: what do you think about cloning humans?

Rebecca Pullon answered on 13 Jun 2016:

Hi!

I think cloning humans is a dangerous subject. When humans take control of their own fate – by cloning humans or making “designer” babies (where traits such as hair colour, eye colour, intelligence etc. are controlled) – we play “god” (ultimately selfishness at reign) and I’m very hesitant to encourage that!

Where are we at now? Recently a gene-snipping technology has been gaining popularity in the news. This allows scientists to remove mutant genes (for example those that cause Down’s syndrome). At the moment it is only legal to change genes in embryo’s before they are born; and only to remove traits that are not “normal”. So at the moment people cannot change a baby’s genes just for the sake of it (eg. prefer blond over brown hair), and we can’t use this technology on humans once they have been born. It may just be a matter of time… A bit scary!

Rebecca