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Cloning - Ethics and moral
Index
1.1 Intro
11.2 Cloning - What is it?
12.1 Cloning as seen from a religious perspective
1
2.1.1 Christian
2 2.1.2 Jewish
2 2.1.3 Muslim
2
2.2 Benefits of cloning
22.3 Ethical and moral aspects to cloning
23.1 Conclusion
33.2 Sources
3
1.1Intro
Cloning is defined as genetical duplication where a cell (in animals) give life to a newindividual who is genetically identical to the parent organism. Cloning is also defined as aprocess where the final offspring is identical to what the offspring would
ve been if theparentorganism had gone through asexual reproduction. The term is derived from theGreekword for «twig» or «branch», and is referring to the process whereby a new plantcan becreated from a twig.
Theconflict between religious belief and cloning is quite obvious. In most religions, boththeview of life as sacred and the belief that life begins at conception, is quite strong.Those statements do not ring true for all the major religions, but it is common amongst themore conservative religious branches.Therefore, they do not believe that a cloned human (or even a cloned embryo) could beconsidered a real human. There are both nuances and strong contrasts between what thedifferent groups think, and so I
ʼ
ve added a short summary of what the different religiousgroups think below.
Even S. Roland 3KMA
3. feb.. 2009Page 1 of 3
2.1.1 Christian
Most of the conservative Christian groups, including Roman Catholicism, are stronglyopposing cloning of both humans and human embryos. They believe that life begins at themoment of conception.
2.1.2 Jewish
In Judaism life is not equated with conception. The Orthodox rabbis have (in general) notfound any firm reason in Jewish law and ethics to oppose cloning. Many Jewish thinkershave cautioned against the dangerous aspects of cloning, but some have also consideredthe potential medical advantages.
2.1.3 Muslim
It is widely believed in the Muslim world that cloning humans is wrong because it isconsidered to be playing Allah. The Qur'an states that «Only He
(Allah)
can give life to anyliving thing».
2.2 Benefits of cloning
Cloning, and human cloning in particular, is highly controversial. The advocates of humancloning believe it could provide genetically identical cells that could be used for medicine,and organs for transplantation. These «customized» cells, tissues and organs would nottrigger an response from the bodys immune system, nor would they requireimmunosuppresive drugs, as transplantations do today. Many areas of medicine wouldbenefit from this new technology.Two European scientists are even hoping to create a treatment that allows infertile couplesto have children with at least some of the parents DNA in the offspring.
2.3 Ethical and moral aspects to cloning
There are many arguments made against cloning, and most of them are valid. Currently,the most important secular objection to human cloning is that, with the technology andknowledge we currently posess, the cloned individual is often biologically damaged.Scientists have yet to succeed in safely and reliably cloning primates.UNESCO
ʼ
s Universal Declaration on Human Genome and Human Rights asserts that«cloning contradicts human nature and dignity». The declaration reasons that cloningcould distort generation lines and family relationships, thus limiting genetic differentiation.Without those, there is little left to ensure that human life is largely unique. Furthermore,the declaration continues arguing that cloning could risk turning humans into manufacturedobjects, interfering with evolution. It concludes that we do not have the insight to predictwhat problems human cloning could cause.There is also the ethical issue of identity, since both the «parent» human and the clonedindividual are genetically the same, how should we determine which is the «real»individual? And furthermore, since they are both the same individual for all practicalpurposes, how are criminal actions to be prosecuted when two separate individuals areindistinguishable?
Even S. Roland 3KMA
3. feb.. 2009Page 2 of 3
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