More scientific information and more public education are needed before any definitive decisions should be made on the issue of human cloning, the commission believes. As Shapiro points out, misconceptions are rife in the public understanding of these issues. Genes matter a lot, but external circumstances matter even more. If I cloned myself, the baby would probably look a lot like me, but it would be born in 1998 and grow up in a very different world than the baby I was, born in 1935. It would become a totally different person.
Cloning is a much less reliable way to accomplish such objectives.
I feel I've made a lot of new friends in the course of what has been a very demanding but very rewarding process.