I think these scientists are full of shit saying they’re anywhere near perfecting the process of cloning. I see these research groups as purely publicity seekers and I hold them in little regard. It’s like they’re trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together in a pitch black room and get all excited when they manage to get two pieces to fit together out of pure luck. The process of cloning is little more than random luck and holds little in the way of actual scientific benefit. The funding going into these research groups would be better alotted pretty much anywhere else.
I wouldn’t say its pure bullshit. We’re nowhere near the perfection part. The scientific community knows all of this bullshit you speak of, believe me, no one’s fooling themselves. What happens with shit like this is what happens with “cure for cancer!” and “stem cell research will save the world!” kinda thing. Its more other people publicizing and dramatizing the actual research being done. The media likes to sex up what’s going on and present it to the uninformed to make em interested. Blame the media more than the scientists.
To say that there 's tons of research going into cloning is wrong, but to say that all research into cloning is invalid is also wrong. Its a field that’s worth investigating and not just to see what can be done, but also, for example, to understand developmental mechanics. However, you are right that there are some experiments that are just “let’s do it and see what happens”. That’s called phenomenology and its not uncommon in the entire field of biological research. People make observations and other shit follows up later.
And remember, its not the scientist’s fault if some dickhead wants to resurrect their 12 year old dead dog into something which actually will not be his 12 year old dead dog.
If you wanna make a good argument about the validity of cloning research, present it this way: all research is designed with the aim of somehow aiding humanity. People will do research on fruit flies, mosquitoes, C. elegans, E. coli, etc… however the vast majority of the research being done has to have the end objective of somehow being beneficial to mankind. When you submit a grant, and these are highly competitive, to get funding from the government (because the vast majority of research is paid for by the government), then you need to justify the use of that money. Since its the government, this is taxpayer money and that means that the tax payers are entitled to getting something back from paying for this research which you are doing. So the point is, how will cloning be useful in advancing science in a way that will benefit humanity/the taxpayers?
Well, the best argument for cloning is to clone human organs for organ replacements. If you need a kidney, you clone your kidney.
The problem with technology and ethics is that rich people do whatever they want to, and after they start doing what they want to it makes it hard to prevent other people from doing so. So if they ever do get human-cloning down pat, the rich people will begin creating human clones, illegally, for their own purposes. And after that happens, the government will look awful feeble trying to explain to the middle class why cloning is wrong.
As for me, I fervently hope they never get it down pat, or even get close.