Cloning Section: Philosophy Essays
(Will human cloning make a type of black market for embryos could easily someday develop?) Parents already spend a great deal of money on in vitro fertilization, and who knows how much they would be willing to pay for cloning their children? The question as to what cloning would do to society from both the moral and economic standpoints comes to the conclusion that for the most part cloning is too expensive and too dangerous. In the religous circles the question of human cloning has stirred debate. Rev. Robert A. Martin states: It appears that from the beginning God reserved for Himself the right to create living souls. I understand that the philosophy of modern psychiatry is to teach that human beings are soulless, therefore we are just flesh and blood which can only respond to the environment with no ability to make conscious decisions for itself. In other words people are no differnet than animals to be used and manipulaated. Thus, there is, from the beginnging, a fundamental difference between what the Bible teaches and what psychiatry teaches. This being the case, it is little wonder then, that some people assume the prerogative of playing the role of god. (http://www.user.shentel.net/ramartin/applied/cloning.htm) Embryonic cloning could be a valuable tool for the studying of human development, genetically modifying embryos, and investigating new transplant technologies. Using cloning to produce offspring for the sake of their organs is an issue that we must also face and question whether or not it is morally right. No one will say that it is okay to kill a human being for the sake of their organs. But will many have no objection to cloning thousands of individuals for the sake of organ transplants? Technology seems to take away many of the morals that we have worked so hard to install in society. Most people only seem to want to cater to their own needs and do not bother to consider the consequences that society and the clone may have to face. With the issue of parents' involvement in cloning, Ruth Macklin, writes, Perhaps a grieving couple whose child is dying. This might seem psychologically twisted. But a cloned child born to such dubious parents stands no greater or lesser chance of being loved, or rejected, or warped than a child normally conceived. Infertile couples are also likely to seek out cloning. That such couples have other options (in vitro fertilization or adoption) is not an argument for denying them the right to clone. Or consider an example raised by Judge Richard Posner: a couple in which the husband has some tragic genetic defect. Currently, if this couple wants a genetically related child, they have four not altogether pleasant options.
They can reproduce naturally and risk passing on the disease to the child. They can go to a sperm bank and take a chance on unknown genes. They can try in vitro fertilization and dispose of any afflicted embryo—though that might be objectionable, too. Or they can get a male relative of the father to donate sperm, if such a relative exists. This is one case where even people unnerved by cloning might see it as not the worst option. (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/). Should we be excited at the prospect of cloning? No more nasty surprises like sickle cell or Down syndrome-just batch after batch of high-grade and, genetically speaking, immortal offspring! Cloning from an already existing adult is a second method that we must consider when discussing the cloning of humans. This type of cloning would no doubt be a very controversial issue any way that it is looked at, but it is necessary to understand the two ways that it could be done if we were to clone humans. Unlike the process of cloning embryos, cloning from already existing humans allows one to know exactly what their clone will look like ahead of time. Before the clone is actually produced, the parents or the individual's clone will know exactly what to expect in their offspring as far as looks go. Personality and other factors cannot be certain, but it is stated that if the clone is observed carefully and compared with its other clones, many similarities will automatically arise. Cloning among adults is less obtainable than embryonic cloning, but it seems to cause just as much controversy. Embryonic cloning has not been successful yet, as far as we know. We do know, however, that cloning from an already existing human may effectively work in the near future. In a movie called, The Boys from Brazil, two clones of Hitler are supposedly produced from a cell obtained containing Hitler's genes. This cell was in turn joined with an egg, and an embryo was formed containing solely the genes of Hitler with only the necessary ones from the woman. This science fiction-like experiment was done for many reasons, but it was mostly intended to test the clones' behavior away from one another and to see if any certain kind of attitude can be passed on from one clone to another. The boys in this movie seem to demonstrate this concept through their slight displays of Hitlers personality traits even after being raised apart with totally different lifestyles. Although, this idea of cloning seems feasible, it is not very logical with today's level of technology. A cell from a nonreproductive part of one's body cannot be taken and used in place of a reproductive cell like sperm.
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