Frankly, we resent the media reports that make it appear that anyone could set up an IVF clinic in their garage. The asexual replication in cloning is nothing like the Assisted Reproduction that has helped provide families with more than 100,000 new children in the U.S. alone. More significant however, there are huge fundamental differences between Cloning and sexual reproduction, even if that reproduction occurs in a laboratory in both instances. Just as with natural conception, half the genetic material comes from the mother and half from the father. These gametes mix and mingle and align themselves in new ways to form a new and unique genetic combination.
Cloning is the replication of an existing genome, and it s simply a copy.
This is very, very different from the new being created through sexual reproduction. For some primitive species, cloning is the main method of reproduction. However, it is sexual reproduction that has given us the magnificent diversity of species we have on our planet today. Many of the problems seen in recent attempts to clone animals stem from the fact that these clones are replications and not new combinations. I take care of infertile patients every day.