Livestock Cloning:
The Future of Agriculture
Issues
Learn about the potential drawbacks and concerns.
Ethical Issues: To Clone or Not to Clone?
Since livestock cloning deals with "manipulating" life, ethical issues arise in relation to animal health and religion.
Animal Welfare
Animal welfare is a prevalent concern with livestock cloning (and animal cloning in general). It's difficult to create perfectly healthy clones. In fact, even if a clone is born (considering the low 10-15% success rate), it can suffer from "developmental delays, heart defects, lung problems and malfunctioning immune systems" (E-1) due to unpredictable errors in genes. For example, cattle clones can be born with enlarged, underdeveloped organs. Even Dolly the sheep gained an unusual amount of weight and had to be put on a diet. She also had arthritis at an unusually early age, and eventually died early of sheep pulmonary adenomatosis (SPA for short), which causes tumors in an animal's lungs. (E-3) In addition, hydrops, a condition where fluid
accumulates in the placenta or fetus, is at a high risk of occurring with animal cloning. In fact, hydrops is reported to cause 58% of “mid- to late-term [cattle SCNT pregnancy] failures,” (E-2) occurring in 13-40% of SCNT pregnancies in cattle. (E-2) Considering the many abnormalities that can emerge in clones, many (including consumers) can be reluctant to accept livestock cloning as a common practice in agriculture. Is it inhumane for society to only consider our own benefits of cloning while completely disregarding the suffering these animals must go through?
Religious Issues
There are also religious issues that accompany livestock cloning. In fact, a poll conducted by ABC News demonstrates that 79% of Evangelical Protestants oppose animal cloning. (E-4) Religious groups may feel that cloning is 'not natural' because it requires a significantly greater level of involvement and interference with animals’ reproductive performance than conventional production methods. Cloning and genetic engineering can be viewed by these groups as “playing God”. Therefore, many consumers may disapprove of cloning techniques and object to the introduction of unlabeled cloned meat products in the food supply (see "Social Issues" for more on labeling).
Social Issues: Labeling and the Future of Cloning
Labeling Concerns
As with any biotechnology, the general public must approve of its use, and this requirement is particularly relevant in the food industry. Although GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) are required to be labeled so consumers can make their own decisions about what they eat (E-5), cloned meat isn't labeled (see below for more on the FDA's decision) (E-6). In fact, it's already in our food supply! If consumers don't know about what kind of meat
they're eating, how can they make their own decisions about whether or not to support livestock cloning? As a result, livestock cloning has been made more controversial and the non-labeling issue may be further protested by consumers who don't want to eat cloned meat.
Looking Towards the Future: Human Cloning?
Livestock cloning may not seem too controversial, but what about the future possibilities it can hold? Animal cloning technology can be used to clone humans as well - but just because we can, does that mean we should? Those against human cloning argue that it devalues life by reducing it to a simple scientific process, and they raise questions about the “right to life” (E-7). In addition, what if the clones have similar problems to those faced by animal clones, such as unusually early aging and diseases? And what about the
low success rate - should we risk all the inevitably unsuccessful experiments with embryos just for one clone? (E-8) The issue of animal cloning is brought to a whole new level when considering the possibilities of human cloning.
Legal Issues: Regulation of Cloning
With the social and ethical issues come legal debates. Even if livestock cloning is widely accepted by society and consumers, to what degree will it be regulated, if at all? Different countries and regions of the world have varying perspectives on this issue. Let's examine the opposing stances of the U.S. and the European Union.
Regulations in the United States
In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that cloned livestock is safe for consumption, as there aren't any additional risks associated with eating food from cloned livestock (compared to those of traditionally bred livestock). However, this only applies to cows, swine, and goats. In addition, the FDA does not require producers to label meat coming from cloned livestock, unless there are safety concerns associated with
the product or there is a significant different between the cloned livestock and conventionally bred livestock. In terms of ethics, the FDA determined that cloning "poses no unique risks to human health" (E-9) compared to those associated with other reproductive methods. (E-6, E-9)
Regulations in the European Union
In Europe, policies regarding livestock cloning are the opposite of those in the U.S. In September 2015, the EU “voted to ban the cloning of all farm animals as well as the sale of cloned livestock, their offspring, and products derived from them” (E-10). However, this ban doesn’t apply to cloning research or animal cloning to save endangered species. The EU came to this decision due to concerns for animal welfare, citing the low success rate and complications that arise in clones. (E-10)
So who is right? The FDA or the EU? While there may not be one clear answer, as cloning evolves (and research into human cloning continues), nations must reach their own decisions about the level of cloning acceptable, taking into account the economic, agricultural, and medical possibilities, as well as ethical and social concerns.