Human Cloning

Ethical Question: Is it ethical to clone humans? Human cloning is not ethical because it violates human and moral rights, may cause psychological harm to children, is ineffective and expensive, and it violates the precautionary principle. Definition: The process of producing a cell, cell product, or organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual form from which it was derived. Arguments Against: 1. The issue of human cloning raises too many questions. For instance, does that clone have the same rights as an individual or is it property? As a result, human cloning may violate human or moral rights. It is noticed that every human being has a right to have a unique identity and a right to ignorance about one’s future or to an “open future”. While this could easily be disputed because of the nature of identical twins, the right to ignorance and an open future is a separate issue. Identical twins have the same exact genome but have different lives and futures. In their case there already exists another version of the clone and they already know certain things about themselves and the future they have to live up to. The later clone will lose the spontaneity of authenticity creating and becoming his or her own self. One will lose the sense of human possibility in freely creating one’s own future. In addition, human cloning would lessen the worth of individuals and diminish the respect for human life. Human life would be seen as replaceable. 2. Cloning may cause psychological harm to children. Children could suffer from a reduced sense of individuality, and a cloned child may feel that their future is worth less as it now rests in a cloned individual. Cloning could also encourage parents to value how well children can genetically meet their expectations rather than loving them for being just their child. In addition to this, parents and society may see their children as objects and not as human beings with actual feelings. If human cloning becomes a reality and a regular social practice, it could also make parents who want to have their own children, and not genetically choose their child, be cast out of society. 3. Cloning can be ineffective and expensive. It took scientists 277 times to clone a stable, healthy sheep called Dolly. Cloning research is very time demanding and expensive costing thousands of dollars that could be put somewhere else. Getting eggs from donors could easily cost up to $50,000, meaning costs to treat/clone only one person could reach up to $100,000. Aside from the cost, human cloning procedures provide many risks. The many risks include: risk to an ovum donor, a nucleus donor, and the woman who receives the embryo for implantations, along with all of the risks to the clone in this procedure. There is another problem in regards to the chronological age versus the biological age. The clone has already gained many years by the time it was born because it was taken from adult cells. This also results in the clone not having as long of a life expectancy. 4. Human cloning violates the precautionary principle. Cloning is a break from the natural process of evolution, which is known to strengthen species and improves their survival instincts through diversity. This could potentially produce a new race of individuals who could be easily manipulated. Creating clones would lead to everyone having the same genetic material, and if ever the ability to clone had been lost or unavailable, the human race would have to resort to natural reproduction causing inbreeds. Human cloning is also seen as taking nature into one’s own hands. No doctor, scientist, or geneticist should be given the power to create life by means of genetic technology. This power could easily be abused, and to tamper with nature equals disaster. If the process of cloning was allowed, humans may also face extinction if evolution is not allowed to follow its proper course of action.