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Illegal Beings: Human Clones
Re: Cloning: pros and how we're being conned
SC ( 10/21/2003, 08:08:48 )There are of plenty of cons with regard to cloning, if by "cons" you mean efforts to mislead and defraud people. The so-called "arguments" against cloning are arguments are not well-reasoned moral arguments; they are arguments for giving up on trying to do the right thing. I don't believe cloning can be banned without contradicting the basic principles of religion and morality upon which Western democracy is built.There is a lot of discussion which purports to say "cloning is wrong" but actually says "cloning is right for me but wrong for you." People talk in much the same way when you say it's right to use cloning to overcome organ failure in the heart or the kidneys but wrong to use it to overcome failure of the reproductive organs. This violates the principles of equality of opportunity and freedom of choice, and to some extent, impinges on the most basic of all individual rights, the right to exist. Only those people who have been relatively blessed by nature will have the opportunity to reproduce if we do not seek to remedy the situation, and nature has no sense of right and wrong.The "playing God" argument is essentially an attempt to avoid making moral decisions. God gave people free will, and even if they attempt to avoid using that free will, they are still making decisions which have consequences. Denying people access to the discoveries they need to survive or pass their existence on to their children is "playing God" in the worst sense of the word. Most people opposed to cloning seem to be overwhelmed with some negative emotion that distorts what they see when they look at the issue. The "reasons" they give against cloning therefore tend to be self-contradictory.You can see a discussion of some typical objections to cloning and the flaws inherent in those objections in my other posts on preceding pages of this forum: "Perfectionism" (10/11/2003, 09:59:55), "The Real Clone Wars" (10/15/2003, 03:30:30), "Eternal life and rebith are Christian concepts, much like cloning" (10/15/2003, 05:20:57) and "Choosing to live" (10/19/2003, 07:21:02).The distinction between "reproductive" and "therapeutic" cloning is essentially a political one. More people support "therapeutic" cloning because sooner or later almost everyone will potentially benefit from it. However, the two use the same sorts of cells which can be produced in exactly the same way for either purpose. Since the two political categories of cloning are so much alike, banning one kind effectively means banning the other. Usually, moral dilemmas arise when there is a conflict between utilitarian principles (what's right is what promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people) and Kantian principles (what's right is based upon the categorical imperative, a more sophisticated version of the golden rule). However, banning cloning is a violation of both moral systems; it doesn't serve the interests of the greatest number of people, and it violates the concept of a moral law (do unto others as you would have them do unto you) that applies to everyone. A utilitarian would say, "There are going to be only a handful of cloned babies born anyway. If this is the small price we have to pay for therapeutic cloning, let's pay it." A Kantian would say, "I don't want or need a cloned baby myself, but if I were someone who wanted children but couldn't have them, I wouldn't want someone else telling me what to do about it."
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