The journey of human cloning has been marked by dramatic ups and downs, heated arguments, and confusion about which path to take. When researchers witnessed the birth of the first cloned mammal, they were delighted, but this event ended with the tragic and premature death of this sheep, Dolly, due to anomalies (Jaenisch 2004: 2787). The initial success and progress in this area prompted scientists to want to further research this technology, which would eventually lead to work on human embryos. This work became high-profile enough to be addressed by former President George W. Bush, who moved to cut all funding for human cloning. This reduction included both therapeutic cloning which worked with embryos not intended to be implanted for a future live birth and reproductive cloning which produced embryos designed for that purpose. The president's decision caused controversy, but was later continued by current President Barack Obama. Confusion over whether cloning human cells is ethical centers on a lack of understanding of the technology itself and the ramifications of its widespread use. Although there are many arguments in favor of this technology, the changes it would bring to society and culture, the reasons for not applying this technology and the dramatic problems that cloning poses human itself all show that cloning of humans This should not happen. Although predictions about the future are fundamentally wrong, one can see the general direction that human cloning would take for world society and culture. At the individual level, cloning would produce one individual genetically related to another much more closely than natural reproduction ever could. A parental problem...... middle of paper ...... was easily avoided simply by stopping the current use and future development of cloning in human beings (Bowring 2003: 401). Works Cited Bottum, J. “Against Human Cloning.” Human Life Review 27.2 (2001): 121. MasterFILE Premier. Internet. December 9, 2013. Bowring, Finn. “Therapeutic and reproductive cloning: a critique.” Social Sciences and Medicine (1982) 58.2 (2004): 401-409. MEDLINE. Internet. December 9, 2013. Jaenisch, Rudolf. “Human Cloning: The Science and Ethics of Nuclear Transplantation.” N Engl J Med 351.27 (2004): 2787-91. Kass, Leon R, Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002. Nelkin, Dorothy, “The Social Power of Genetic Information.” London: Harvard University Press, 1992. Williamson, Robert. “Human reproductive cloning is unethical because it violates autonomy: comment on Savulescu.” Medical ethics review 25.2 (1999): 96.