There has been an onslaught of protests and people lobbying for a ban on human cloning ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned by Dr. Wilmut and his colleagues. Not only has the media exploited the ethics of the issue and scared the public with images of Frankenstein and evil scientists, but many worldwide authorities such as President Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac of France, and Prime Minister John Major of Great Britain have all spoken out publicly against human cloning and have proposed legislation and committees to regulate and/or ban it. Religious leaders and the Pope have also talked about human cloning’s dangers of “Playing God” and the “loss of uniqueness” that an individual would suffer if he or she were to be cloned. Many of these fears are misguided, misrepresented, and illogical. The benefits of human cloning would far outweigh the drawbacks, and cloning research should not lose funding or be banned.
The most popular objection to human cloning is the assumption that science would be playing God if it was to create human clones. Reverend Albert Moraczewski states that cloning is intrinsically morally wrong, is an attempt to play God, and exceeds the limits of the delegated dominion given to the human race. (Madigan, 8) To say that this argument is unclear and unsupported is generous. It refuses to differentiate between cloning and the interruptions of biological processes which are viewed as commonplace in today’s society. Religious objections were once raised at the prospects of autopsies , anesthesia, artificial insemination, organ transplants, and other acts which were seen to be tampering with divine will. (Madigan, 3) Yet enormous benefits have been reaped by each of these…
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…crime or illegal activity has a victim involved with it. Human cloning has no victim or loser in it. It is a chance for the advancement of science and humankind. Banning it or eliminating research funds would be a tremendous mistake when we haven’t even perfected it or discovered all of the possible benefits.
Works Cited
Hopkins, Patrick D. Bad Copies: How Popular Media Represent Cloning as an Ethical Problem. Hastings Center Report April 1998: 1. SIRS Researcher. West High Library, Iowa City. 25 Jan. 2000
Madigan, Timothy J. Cloning Humans. Free Inquiry Summer 1997: 1. SIRS Researcher. West High Library, Iowa City. 20 Jan. 2000
The benefits of Human Cloning. Human Cloning Foundation. 25 Jan. 2000
Vere, Stephen. The Case for Cloning Humans. Taking Sides: Science, Technology, and Society. T. Easton (ed.); McGraw-Hill Publishing, 2000. 1-12.
The Ethics of Cloning
The Ethics of Cloning
Regardless of what our future holds, it will be based on the decisions we make today. Those decisions can be made using the Utilitarian Theory which states that we are doing good for the greatest number of people. Using Rule Utilitarianism “which maintains that a behavioral code or rule is morally right if the consequences of adopting that rule are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone. (IEP)” is justifably noted that if a consensus is formed on the basis of rules that govern cloning, and these rules are broken, the appropriate punishment will result. This is because cloning a human will not benefit the society as a whole, it would do more harm than good. We all have rules that govern our society over what is right or wrong and we know that these rules are set forth to maintain order. We have laws because it benefits the majority of the people.
Principles of Consequences state that when looking at the end result, the correct action will be the action that produces the greatest amount of happiness (Ursery). To decide if human cloning produces the greatest amount of happiness we have one question still in need of an answer is “Are human embryos really human?” Well, the term ‘human’ proceeding the term ’embryo’ should adequately answer the question. The embryo are cloned from human tissue, contain human DNA, thus there is likely a 100 percent chance that the embryos are indeed human, as opposed to being tadpole embryos. Therefore, biologically speaking a clone is no less a human than you or I. And using that human for tissue simply because he/she was cloned rather than conceived does not validate the notion, nor skip around the moral and ethical implications of taking the life of another human being. Death is not a happy occasion therefore it does not produce the greatest amount of happines to the majority of the popluation.
The bad consequences out way the good, therefore we cannot assume that the benefit of human cloning will solve life’s problems. To this day we have yet to find a cure for the common cold. This is because most diseases have a way of surviving, as did the human race during the ice age. Everything finds a way to adapt to it’s environment and if the benefits major benefit for cloning is to cure diseases, then we are at a loss.