Human Cloning

Pro states 4 reasons (below) we should allow research on human cloning. 1. A Great Advance In Science 2. 'Perfect Humans' 3. 'Bringing back the dead' 4. To help couples struggling with infertility. In each case my opposition to human cloning is that WE ARE NOT READY TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING There are technical, legal, moral and social issues that must be resolved before we allow experiments on human cloning. Pro has not shown understanding of the depth of the issues, and has not given adequate responses to the issues raised. WE ARE NOT READY TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING Let me add some detail to the issues that must be resolved before we are ready to allow human cloning. 1. Legal problems with human cloning A. Who owns the clone? When cloning research is being done there is no question that the cells belong to the lab. If human cloning experiments are successful there may be a living human produced. 1. At what point does this property of the lab become legally a person? At what point must we abort (kill) this experiment before it has legal status. How do these definitions of "when does life begin" fit with the abortion debate. If embryo division and implantation is the technique, who is the guardian/parent/owner) donors of sperm and egg - 2 "parents" (2 people contribute genes) donor of the fertilized embryo - 1 "parent" woman with the host womb - 1 parent not necessarily related. If nuclear substitution is used, slightly different options. donors of nucleus - 1 "parent" (identical genetics to donor) donor of the egg - 1 "parent" not at all related to offspring woman with the host womb - 1 parent not necessarily related. 2. Who receives compensation if the lab kills the child? (Remember current techniques with mammals kill 250 or more experimental failures for every short life span an cancer prone "success") B. Who is responsible for them before they come to age of majority? 1. If the children produced in this way are the responsibility of the genetic parents, we can have no more experimentation than we have people willing to parent the children. 2. If the children are the responsibility of the corporation or lab where they were produced, this leads to all manner of social and legal problems. REMEMBER - we need a strong legal foundation in place before we allow cloning research. 3. Most of the clones will have genetic malfunctions, physical and mental problems, cancers and other medical and social issues. Do we simply kill the failed experiment, or do you keep them alive and in institutions. Who pays for this? Who is responsible morally and financially for their care. C. At what age does life begin? (Be prepared for strong backlash from "Pro Choice" activists) 1. Many believe that life begins at conception. Others believe that life begins at birth. This question becomes even more important to define if we experiment with human cloning. For example, if I cause a car accident and a pregnant woman loses her child, I pay damages for the loss of that unborn child (Canadian law). If a girl wants an abortion right up to full term she can get one (Canadian law). Here we have confusion over the question "when does life begin?" In Canada it seems if the desire of the parent to have a child is the only real difference between these two situations. In the USA it would cause huge public outcry to open up the "when does life begin?" debate. D. Are these people citizens or property or pets? Assuming that a cloned human lives to birth without too many defects; Assuming they actually live past age 18 or 19 to be an adult; Can these people sue for damages and mental anguish for the likely problems. Can the "parents" sue on behalf of their children? E. Is the death of a clone in a lab an act of murder, manslaughter or negligent homicide? What legal protections do clones have? F. What legal protection do researchers have from the "parents" How do you do research if your almost certain to run into legal action against you. G. Are there legal protections for my cell line? This is not just an issue for clone research, but transgenic (GMO) research as well. There are legal problems that we will not soon overcome. NOTE: These issues need to be worked into laws BEFORE human cloning is legally viable. WE ARE NOT READY TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING 2. Scientific problems with human cloning There are technical and intellectual barriers to human cloning. We need to learn so much in animal experiments. There are so many techniques that need to be perfected. We need to get a high level of success BEFORE we experiment with people. A. Cloning of higher mammals has a high failure rate. B. Attempts to clone complete human will result many deaths. C. Do we need to regulate who we allow to donate tissues? D. Human experimentation currently requires informed consent.- Who can give this? E. Our goal should be to improve life. At what cost to the people who are failed experiments? F. Cloned creatures have short life spans and many health and genetic problems. We are not ready to move forward in human cloning until we have answered these questions. 3. Morality problems in human cloning. Depending on your foundation for morals and ethics you will see different issues as most important. For theistic people there is the whole issue of "playing God". For those who say "unnecessary pain and suffering is morally wrong" there is the huge rate of failure and death this would cause. For those think of the morality of where we spend our research dollars, there is the issue that there are many more effective areas of research (more medical benefit and less human deaths) 4. Social problems with human cloning Many of the social problems are more for the future when we have a reasonable chance at success. Right now there have ben ZERO successes at human cloning. A. Children of divorce and single parent homes have a host of social problems. B. Single parent families are a huge drain on our social welfare system C. Children of divorce and single parent families fill our prison system. We do not want to increase these numbers. WE ARE NOT READY TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING Legally - we need a legal framework before we allow it. Scientifically - we need more work in cloning lower animals. We don"t know enough or have good enough techniques. Morally - This is no compelling reason to allow it. There are a myriad of reasons to oppose it. Socially - When we get our science to the place where successful human cloning is likely, then we have a host of social considerations that require legislation and programs to help usher in this new era. WE ARE NOT READY TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING I want to address a few of PRO"s faulty assertions. PRO"s answer to the legal question of ownership missed the issue. :: Since owning a person is illegal, and clones are humans, :: I am guessing that you mean, "Who has legal responsibility for the clone?" Ownership issues change based on the age of the clone. When it is simply an embryo, we act as if they are property. If we presume life begins at birth, the parents / researchers / corporation can dispose of this embryo (abortion) up to birth. (I am morally opposed, but it is the law) After the clone is born we say he/she has certain rights based on birth. PRO asks "Does this mean we should create and keep clones in the desert?" Pro missed the point. There is no socially acceptable way to create a clone. We should not be trying to produce them. From a purely technical standpoint we need to perfect our research on animals without the moral, legal and social questions. WE ARE NOT READY TO ALLOW HUMAN CLONING