Moral Arguments for and Against Cloning
What is Cloning? In recent times, cloning has become a worldwide issue. Often, when people think of cloning they think of duplicating a person or they envision horror movies where human monsters are being created. However, there are three different cloning processes, which serve three very different purposes. The first type of cloning is called embryo cloning. ... The second type of cloning is called Adult DNA Cloning. ... The third type of cloning is called Therapeutic Cloning or biomedical cloning. The initial stages of this cloning is identical to Adult DNA cloning but then, the stem cells are removed from the pre-embryo in order to produce tissue or an entire organ for transplant back into the body of the person who gave the DNA. ... Many people die each year waiting for organ transplants and the purpose of Therapeutic Cloning is to increase the chances of sick people receiving a transplant and, more specifically, a successful one. Moral Arguments Against Cloning However, this idea of cloning is not universally well received and in fact, there are many opponents to cloning. There are two prominent moral arguments against Therapeutic Cloning, the first is the argument that cloning is an attempt to play God and the second is the argument that it is murder. ... Since birth by cloning is not the union of a man and a woman, this argument claims that it is contrary to the intentions of God. ... The second moral argument claims that cloning, especially Therapeutic Cloning is murder. This argument maintains that cloning is a form of “infanticide. ... It is not all that dissimilar from the argument against abortion. Another, and further argument against this is that life should not be created in order to be destroyed. ... Next, there are arguments against Adult DNA Cloning. Three of the most prominent arguments against this type of cloning are that many attempts would fail and end up producing “mutants”, the worth of human life would be minimized and the clone would experience emotional stress. ... The concern then becomes, what happens, especially when dealing with human lives, to all of the failed attempts at cloning?