Safe human reproductive cloning can only be achieved by conducting research and developing techniques that ensure the safety of the gestating mother and the health and welfare of the child. The huge obstacle to designing safe procedures is that any such research will involve experimentation on humans.
Medical experiments on humans are conducted all the time, but new drugs, procedures, and devices are tested on animals first. Clinical drug trials are a classic example of human experimentation. Phase I clinical trials are the safety phase of bringing a new drug to market. Animal testing has been done, most often in mice. Data have been reported and analyzed, and the FDA has permitted human testing to proceed.
But the side effects in humans and the proper dosages are completely unknown. Researchers make informed guesses so that deaths of study participants are rare events. But clinical drug trials are human experiments and people do die. In the absence of detailed animal studies, experiments done directly on humans are viewed with great suspicion and are usually proscribed.
» Read more: Human Rights, Medical Research and Reproductive Cloning
