What are Some Benefits of Cloning?
Cloning. The word conjures up science-fiction images of huge laboratories filled with human-sized tanks and mysterious equipment. When discussing some of the benefits of cloning, however, the reality tends to be much less dramatic. There are many different areas of cloning, all of which have different potential benefits. A few of them are include natural cloning, called asexual reproduction; the cloning of plants, called vegetative propagation; reproductive cloning of animals; reproductive cloning of humans; and organ cloning. Some living organisms in nature can duplicate themselves without the need of a partner. Unless they have been mutated by an outside source, the offspring are usually genetically identical to the parent organism. This is called asexual reproduction, and is a type of cloning. This type of cloning is possible in bacteria, fungi, plants, some invertebrates, and rarely in higher-order animals. The benefit of cloning in this way for the organism is that a single indivi
