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Cloning

Cloning is the process of creating a genetic duplicate of an
individual. Since the February 1997 announcement of the birth of
Dolly, a sheep cloned by Ian Wilmut, cloning research has increased
considerably. Cloning humans has recently become much more of a
possibility in society than it was years ago. Scientists are on the
edge of a huge breakthrough in the field of human cloning, and society
must ask itself whether or not it should be allowed. Many arguments
can be made for and against human cloning, but since it is unethical
and would take away individuality and disrupt social values, the
practice of cloning humans is one that government should ban and
society should not accept.

Proponents of human cloning may argue that it is just a logical
and inevitable advance in science research and technology. It is,
however, too risky for human subjects. At the present time, the
general consensus of the public is against human cloning.

(Fitzgerald 37) Within a few years' time, however, the medical
possibilities of human cloning may be attractive enough to change
public opinion. Research on human cloning would involve huge
risks for the initial clones, because any experiments in human
cloning would eventually have to be carried out on human beings.

Human cloning is unethical because the risks of this practice greatly
outweigh the benefits. The technique that produced Dolly the sheep was
successful in only 1 of 277 attempts. If this technique were attempted
in humans, it would risk miscarriages in the mother and severe
developmental problems in the child. Standard medical practice would
never allow the use of any drug or device with such little study and
without much additional animal research. (National Bioethics Advisory
Commission) The actual risks of physical harm to the cloned child
cannot be certain without conducting experiments on human beings. This
in itself is unethical because no one knows what will happen and the
child is in danger because "one does not know what is going to happen,
and one is^possibly leading to a child who could be disabled and have
developmental difficulties." (Professor John Robertson)

Human cloning would violate a person's individuality and take away
a child's identity. Cloned children would see themselves not as a
person, but as an object that their parents could discard because
of imperfection. A family is no longer a genuine family.

Children should be valued for who they are, not according to how
closely thy meet their parents' expectations. If a child were
cloned, his life would already have been lived by another human
being. Suppose a boy is cloned from a grandparent. The cloned
child knows too much about himself because another person in the
world is exactly like him. It is unfair for the earlier "twin" to
determine the child's life in this way. Imagine a world in which
cloning is permitted and practiced. If people are able to pick
and choose the human traits that they find desirable, it could
very possibly lead to feelings of superiority that are often
linked with racial injustice. (NBAC) This "genetic selection"
was practiced by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party and the world saw
the horrible effects of his desire to improve nature. Human
cloning poses a huge risk to society and nature. It is unethical and
unacceptable, inappropriate and intolerable. Society should not reduce
itself to cloning of humans for its own benefit. Cloning would produce
many more problems than improvements. The course of life should be left
up to nature, the way it has been since the beginning of time.

Opposing Viewpoints Series Biomedical Ethics -- including:

The Risks of Human Cloning Outweigh The Benefits-NBAC
Cloning Research Would Not benefit Humans-Kevin T. Fitzgerald
Cloning Would Violate A Person's Individuality-Allen Verhey

Includes the following:

Jerry Adler "Clone Hype,"Newsweek, November 8, 1993

Sharon Begley "Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?" Newsweek, March 10, 1997

Chris Bull "Send in the Clones" Barry Came "The Prospect of Evil," Maclean's, March 10, 1997

Philip Elmer-Dewitt "Cloning: Where Do We Draw the Line?" Time Magazine
Free Inquiry Special section on cloning humans, Summer 1997

Christine Gorman "To Ban or Not to Ban?" Time Magazine Hastings Center Report Response to the NBAC Report on human cloning, September/October 1997

Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal Special issue on the ethics of cloning human embryos, September 1994

Gina Kolata "Ethics Panel Recommends a Ban on Human Cloning," New York Review of Books, October 23, 1997

R.C. Lewontin "The Confusion over Cloning," New York Review of Books, October 23, 1997

David Masc "The Cloning Controversy," CQ Researcher, May 9, 1997

Stephen G. Post "The Judeo-Christian Case Against Human Cloning," America, June 21, 1997

Time Magazine Special report on cloning, March 10, 1997