The Ethics of Human Cloning

Human reproductive cloning is the creation of a genetically identical human being, or individual parts of said human, such as organs or tissue.

    Those who are against human cloning believe that it is unethical because it is, in effect, playing god. Pope Benedict XVI, the papal leader of The Roman Catholic Church, has condemned cloning, stating that it is a "grave offense to the dignity of that person as well as to the fundamental equality of all people." There are also issues of whether clones will have the same equal rights as naturally born humans, and the fact that certain embryos (in which the cloning process begins) are created for research purposes and promptly destroyed when the research concludes.

    Many people believe that cloning is beneficial to mankind. Cloning of organs and tissues can save lives and cure many diseases. Not to mention that cloning of body parts could restore missing limbs or replace faulty body parts, essentially curing blindness, deafness, etc. Another benefit is it can create a child for an infertile couple.

    My beliefs fall somewhere in the middle. I do not think that human cloning is unethical, but it does need to be monitored in some way. Limits must be placed on what scientists can and cannot do. First of all, there is a variety of ways that human cloning can be taken too far. Such as creating clones to serve as worker bees. I’m sure if they were government created, the government would claim ownership of them. After all, the government claims ownership of any man or woman who serves in the military--they are considered property of the U.S. Government. Conceivably, the government could go a step further and create genetically superior human beings for the purpose of warfare.

    So cloning should be policed, and limited to the creation of individual parts of the human, rather than an entire human being. As for infertile couples who want a cloned child, it is hard to allow such a thing to occur without sparking debate as to how far full human cloning should be taken. What is the limit? Anyone can argue that if a child can be cloned for an infertile couple, that other complete clones should also be allowed.

    Of course, these are advances that we have not yet mastered - even animal cloning fails most of the time. When it was announced that Dolly, the first mammal cloned from adult DNA, was created, most people were not aware that her creation was the only success among 275 failures. Those that are successfully cloned generally have a number of health issues. Dolly only lived to be half as old as most sheep of the same breed.

    But if the cloning of an entire human becomes allowed, there should be no question about their rights. Regardless of their origins, they are still human beings, and deserve to be given the same rights as any other human.

References

Phil for Humanity
http://www.philforhumanity.com/Human_Cloning.html

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cloning

Human Genome Project Information
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml