Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, and various other campaigners are calling for more stem cell research to find cures for various diseases. Stem cell research begins in the lab the same way as cloning (i.e. Mixing DNA chains and inserting them into new cells) but testing remains at the embryo stage. The embryos aren't allowed to fully form into foetuses, so they aren't legally 'alive', but there are still those opposed to the process, who say that any research of this kind is against nature (or that old lynch-pin, God).
On the other hand, supporters say diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimers, multiple sclerosis and cancer could all potentially be cured following these trials. Over the past eight years, President Bush restricted federal funding to only a handful of avenues in stem cell research, but President Obama recently lifted these limitations and won praise from the scientific community for having an open mind.
What does remain firmly illegal in the eyes of international law is 'somatic cell nuclear transfers' in humans (cloning people, like Michael Keaton did in the 1996 film Multiplicity). Cloning a person is portrayed in most fiction as being fairly simple science-wise. In fact, the opposite is probably true; A scientist is more likely to go through hundreds of failures before he manages to grow a viable human embryo, and even then there's a large chance the clone would have multiple health issues and end up dying young.
The quandary isn't so much 'should we create clones', but rather 'how should they be treated by their creators?' In the 2005 film The Island, clones are seen to grow to full adulthood at an accelerated rate so that their organs can be harvested. These clones are expensive donor-buffets, paid for by the rich as a safety net in case of illness or injury. They're kept docile and under control in an underground facility and aren't thought of as people, merely products.
When humans start playing God like this, sacrificing one life to save another...well, Mary Shelley had a pretty good idea of the consequences when she wrote Frankenstein.
We knew cloning would arrive in society sooner or later, but it's telling that not one sci-fi short story, Hollywood movie or Playstation game seems to portray cloning in a positive light. It's always about evil clones out to get their twin - witness the fountain of information that is Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
However, that movie has robot clones, which is a whole other nightmare that'll be explored more thoroughly in the upcoming Bruce Willis film Surrogates. It's set in the near future where people send out their nicely-quaffed robotic counterparts (or 'surrogates') for work and social functions, while the real person stays at home looking like a bald Bruce Willis).
For all the perils concerning human cloning (aka Reproductive Cloning), there are inevitably organisations who are firmly for the cause. They say Hollywood has turned 'clone' into a dirty word when it could be the key to curing sickness or - Pandora's Box alert! - even death itself. One thing is certain: Now that stem cell research finally has some funding, one way or another things are going to change.
References:
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#risks
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/healthscience/articles/20030126.htm
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/UCSD-Cheers-Obama-Stem-Cell-Order.html