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Illegal Beings: Human Clones
Re: My proof that cloning,Human and Animal, is wrong
EternalWater7K ( 11/24/2004, 22:14:05 )Human Cloning: The Ultimate TemptationBy Clem BoydFrom the day in 1997 when we first heard about the Scottish ewe cloned from an adult sheep, we all knew it would come to this. But so soon? On Monday, Jan. 22, the British House of Lords approved changes to government regulations that clear the way for research on stem cells, viewed by scientists as the master cells of human development. Researchers hope to harvest these cells from early-stage embryos up to 14 days old. They would then be cultured in labs to become transplantable cells or tissue for fighting illnesses like Parkinson's disease or diabetes. In essence, Great Britain would become the first country to legalize the cloning of human embryos. "Like all other embryos used in research, the clones created under the new regulations would have to be destroyed after 14 days, and the creation of babies by cloning would remain outlawed," explained a story by The Associated Press. But in a separate story, a U.S. reproduction specialist announced just four days later that an international coalition of scientists would begin developing human clones to help infertile couples. Dr. Panayiotis Zavos says that a viable embryo could be available for implanting in a woman's uterus within 18 months. In regards to genetic screening, he told Reuters [the British news agency], "We can grade embryos, we can do genetic screening, we can do quality control." "This is what we feared," says Don Munro, executive driector of the American Scientific Affiliation, an organization of Christian scientists, "this idea of 'quality control.' Whose quality and whose control?" Donal O'Mathuna, a fellow of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill., recognizes that stem cell research has a huge potential for good. But, "this is treating the human embryo as just a commodity, as a thing we can make when we feel we have usefulness for it and then kill it," he says. "That to me is degrading the value of the embryo as a unique, living human entity. "When we begin looking at certain human beings in terms of their functional and material value, it's easy for that to spread to other humans, like [those who are] debilitated at the end of life, " O'Mathuna continues. "We may think that they don't have that much usefulness now, [so] let's take their organs earlier than we might otherwise because a greater good can come from that. We need to return to the idea that all humans, regardless of functional ability, deserve a degree of respect [simply] because they are human." Though Christians may be repulsed by the idea of cloning, we cannot afford to keep silent. "We need to encourage Christians who are knowledgeable about these things to stay in the fray," Munro says. "We need to encourage them with our prayers and support." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clem Boyd is a freelance writer and part-time minister in Dayton, Ohio. For more information about cloning read Human Cloning: Society's quest to make humanity the way we want it to be, first printed in the May/June 2000 issue of Physician magazine. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright © 2000 Focus on the Family All rights reserved. International copyright secured. (800) A-FAMILY (232-6459)
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