There’s been a ban on human cloning research in the U.S. since the Clinton Administration. And Bush expressly mentioned it, stating clear opposition, in his SOTU adress last night. I’ve never understood why. What has anybody got against human cloning? I don’t think we need it for reproductive purposes, but I can’t see any harm in it. If I want to raise my own genetic twin as my child, why shouldn’t I? As for cloning for therapeutic purposes – how can anybody object to research that might make it possible to clone new organs for people who need them?
Every child is unique. It shouldn’t have to start life as a mere copy of someone else already existing person. Especially since such a cloning would often be done for less than healthy reasons.
But a clone is a genetic copy only; life experiences make it otherwise unique. Besides, we already have natural identical twins – there’s no reason why only one in each pair should be allowed to be born, is there?
Such as?
No there’s of course nothing wrong with human cloning so long as we can assure that cloned children are physically as robust as those born via a round of hide-the-sausage. (Not that I follow the literature, but I’m reasonably sure that at this stage, this is something we cannot ensure.)
The other dimension of this, however, is that one thing that’s on the drawing boards is mass-cloning embryos for the sole purpose of terminating their viability and harvesting stem cells from them. I do think that there’s a moral dimension to this question.
–Cliffy
Yeah, you’re going to have to offer some rationale for that besides “I says so.”
–Cliffy
The objections of rational opponents usually centers around the high rate of failures and birth defects that occur with the current technology.
There are also no shortage of objections based on the supernatural.
Yes. But supposedly the whole reason for wanting to clone in the first place is to get a child that match some fairly precise expectations.
Wanting to recreate a dead loved one for instance. Which would put unreasonable expectations on the child to be be someone else.
Wanting to have a child with those specific genetic for the purpose of harvesting organs or other body material for use in an already living, but ill, person.
What good reasons are there to clone a human?
- This is not something I feel strongly about. But something that I am very suspicious of.
That’s why a lot of people have normal children in the first place, though. I don’t know that it’s terribly healthy to have regular children in the first place that you wish to raise to some specific expectations, but it happens all the time and most people still turn out OK.