A clone is a cell, group of cells, or organism that is descended from and genetically identical to a single ancestor. Or to look at in another view, a clone is a copy, an organism descended asexually form a single ancestor. There are different types of cloning however, and cloning technologies can be used for other purposes besides producing the genetic twin of another organism. There is therapeutic cloning along with reproductive cloning. The processes of each are relatively close with a few minor differences in the ending steps but the ending result is what makes the two so different.
             Therapeutic cloning is a technique that would be used to produce cloned embryos, but only to create stem cells that can in turn be used to repair damaged or defective tissue in the parent of the cloned cells. Such stem cells could theoretically be used to grow replacement livers or hearts (or any of a variety of organs) for transplant without fear of rejection. They might be used to create healthy nerve cells for people with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Skin cells could be derived from cloned stem cells for burn victims. The process of therapeutic cloning comes about as follows. The person who needed the healthy stem cells would provide a non-egg, non-sperm cell from which the DNA would be removed. That DNA, containing two copies of each human chromosome, would be inserted into a donor egg that has had its own nucleus and DNA removed. The egg with the introduced DNA would act like it had just been fertilized and begin to divide, forming an embryo. Stem cells from that embryo would be removed and cultured to provide the needed healthy tissue. In removing the cells you destroy the embryo, which raises some ethical questions. "Although human stem cells hold a lot of promise for regeneration of damaged organs and tissues throughout the body, in many cases scientists are a very long way from harnessing the therapeutic potential of t...