There are the metaphysical and philosophical questions around the origin of life and what is or is not a human being.

There are the political questions on whether cloning for stem cell research be allowed in Canada These include whether Canada will be left behind in medical research and access to off shore research- including significant medical breakthroughs- if the door is closed here.

And finally there are the scientific questions: What's the research potential, and are there not other ways to get to the same hoped for results?

The metaphysical/philosophical questions probe along the edges of opinion expressed by A. Burnett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Seattle - He said: "When cloning is done to pursue medical research it creates a new human person solely for his or her cells and tissues, that violates the fundamental ethical and moral norms by reducing human life to a mere instrument"

Foundational to the archbishops opinion is the concept that a human is a human being regardless of whether it has two cells or billions of cells. Not much room to manoeuvre there. But, as the archbishop knows, its not the only arguement.

Try this one: All knowledge begins with god and cloning works because god has originally created the laws of science which allow it. You can extend it further by suggesting cures discovered by stem cell research demonstrates goodness not evil.
This however circles back on the 'some things are good some are evil" arguement. And that distroying any human life at any point is evil.

This then begs the question, when does human life start? At the moment of fertilization, the church might argue. Not so say others. Even though in Genesis god created Adam's body before breathing life into it(or soul)and that body was not a clay statue but of flesh and blood. The arguements go on and on.

Humanity has in this area only reached a shaky basic agreement/ And that is that when it comes to the handling of human embryos they need to be treated with some measure of respect. (whether that does happen is another story)

So far there is no real agreement at all on the metaphysical issues raised by cloning which is to be expected in discussions of ultimate reality.

However, it is also folly to underestimate the passion generated even if a consensus is beyond our grasp, be they political, scientific or philosophical and the impact it will have on our society.