coda57 : i think we should clone organs and maybe meat for food but not humans, theres already too many people

septembern : I hear what you're saying. I wasn't disagreeing with you. I just thought that I read in your post that only a few thousand more people would not die a year and that's why we shouldn't let that stop us.

Even if we do accommodate for the influx of extra people, Earth is staying the same size but we will be relying on nature more to fill our needs and sustain us. Eventually this will come to haunt us. The Earth really isn't that big and if I recall correctly continuous cloning degrades the DNA structures.

I generally play the devil's advocate in debates myself (though I'm not a big fan of debates because everyone is just arguing for their side and acts like the other side is completely wrong).

First off I agree with septembern (whether he/she agrees with that or is playing devil's advocate is irrelevant).

Next, NotJon, several points I want to make here:

Population growth is linked more to poverty, and generally it come down to survival of genes. Very Darwinian but the less likely your children are to survive and the longer you live, the less children you are likely to have as survival takes a back seat to economic interests, so in actual fact cloning would merely be a drop in the ocean and population growth would be mainly thanks to poor conditions in Africa, the Middle East and India (which by 2050 is predicted to overtake China as the most populous country).

I disagree with your Earth staying the same size. Earth is not overpopulated. Specific regions are overpopulated, but as a whole the Earth could probably accommodate double the current population at least. Russia's population for example is in rapid decline and I argue that humanity should be taking a more active role to try to harness the world to support the population. Macro-engineering projects can make this a reality, China is already building the Green Wall of China to hold the Gobi Desert at bay http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1199218.stm

And various projects have been proposed to free up more of the Earth's surface, including damming the Mediterranean and terraforming the Sahara Desert: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/02/alternativeenergy.solarpower
If you look at these in the context of human history from irrigation to damming rivers and building the Panama Canal, its the next logical step up in engineering terms.

I'm not suggesting these as an alternative but rather the other side of the coin to handling these problems, because if something radical isn't done in the next 50 years to curtail current population trends in South Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa, some very big countries are set to become A LOT more unstable (including several nuclear powers) and that's without even considering cloning, which presumably if technology permits the kind of advancements, would still be beyond the reach of 99% of the people in these regions.

I generally think that all avenues should be open to scientists to explore, including human cloning, as we don't know what we can learn and it would ultimately be beneficial for humanity as a whole. That said I would recognise any human clones as human with the same rights. When it comes down to it cloning is like any other technology, it can be used to bad or good.

My only exception to this is dinosaurs - I've seen enough Jurassic Park to know better

I think cloning has a lot of potential especially in medical fields. Other people have allready mentioned cloning for reproducing organs and body parts aswell as for curing diseases.  I think cloning could be a good tool for reviving endangered and extinct species. No not dinosaurs or pre-historic mammals... I am thinking more along the lines of Dodo birds and Tasmanian tigers, or other animals humans played a part in destroying. I don't think it is any ones intention to create full blown members of society through cloning, as there is really no point. Although there is always the possibility of some one abusing it and making an army or labour force, like Elara. Now that I think of it I wouldn't having my own personal servant that would work for no money!

In all seriousness, cloning to an extent allready happens in nature. Single cell organisms and A-sexual organism all produce offspring with the exact same DNA.

I think the benefits of cloning out way the possible misuse of it.

coda57 :
Interesting post. As with everything I seem to think about, the answer is grey, not black or white.
Cloning in itself is a great thing for us, I believe. We've been cloning for a long time, a lot longer than before Dolly. We've used plant cuttings for example to cultivate, not more plants but copies of the exact same plant. I think cloning is a good thing as long as we do not attempt to clone sentient life. Then things become messy. Then things becomes downright unethical. Imagine a clone of yourself walking around? No, you drop that as soon as you think of it. I think cloning living cells, organs, these kinds of things are fairly acceptable. It helps a lot of people to no one's expense (so it seems. If anyone feels they can correct me on that (on anything, in fact), feel free, I'd like to know).
Non sentient life? Go on, guys. That's basically my opinion ^^;

peopel seem to forget that if you clone someone they definatley wont be the same, firstly theres always two sides to any living organism. nature and nurture, genetically the same they will experience the same bodily functions but all enviromental factors will be different as it would be impossible to recreate the exact events that hitler lived through. Secondly i dont believe that a human clone has been made yet, many biologists apprently talk about harvesting their organs but if the human clone has a mind and such imagine the horror of being born into a world where your simply kept to be harvested late on in life :o like SLouC said the matter is not in black or white but shades of grey. their can be good to come from cloning i think but when you start harvesting then all humanity is lost i think (without sounding too dramatic). i think cloning the organs on their own though would be brilliant if we could just find a way