by R. Cunningham

Created on: May 16, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2009

The prospect of human cloning touches on fundamental aspects of our humanity. Cloning raises issues about identity and individuality, the meaning of having children, and the difference between procreation and manufacture. It also raises new questions about the manipulation of human beings for the benefit of others and the question of human dignity. Kantian ethical theory states that an individual's dignity lies in their freedom to think and reason and determine their own lives for themselves. Kantian theory proposes that we should respect this dignity and never uses an individual as a means. However, what if a certain couple was biologically unable to have a child and cloning was the only available method of reproduction? Would that change the circumstances? Using Kantian ethics as a model, it would not, because it is not ethically valid to utilize cloning to bring about greater happiness for parents. Reproductive cloning jeopardizes human dignity by turning humans into manufactured objects, commodities created simply at the whim of others.

The act of reproductive cloning proposes an instrumental attitude toward human beings, the idea that people exist to serve purposes set by other human beings. When cloning is used in this fashion, dignity is undermined in two related ways. First, a clone's right to an individual life would be constrained by others expectations that he or she will behave in certain ways based on experiences with the genetic originator. Secondly, the clone may not or may not want to behave in the expected ways. This is because behavior is not shaped by genes, or "nature" alone, but also formed by environmental factors such as education and upbringing. Many opponents of cloning fear that it will eliminate individual autonomy because one is literally copying genetic code, but it is instead, the differences in human individuality caused by ones "nurture", that jeopardizes the dignity of the clone. The clone, in turn, would disappoint others expectations due to their own unique personality and upbringing, and suffer the consequences throughout his or her life.

Those who advocate that a want-to-be parent who is biologically unable to reproduce should have the option of cloning often overemphasize the freedom, desires, and control of parent making the decision, and pay insufficient attention to the well being of the clone itself. Proponents of cloning claim that so long as the clone is created with the individual's best interests,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>