The New York Times has an article up about a German project to map the Neanderthal genome. A Harvard Medical School professor says that it should be possible to clone a Neanderthal from this information for about $30 million. Radley Balko poses various ethical questions related to whether or not a Neanderthal is a human being, but leaving those aside....Is it ethical to clone a human being?
5 comments:
No. That aside, what purpose would there be to clone a person? I can think of a few, but none that seem ethical or psychologically sound.
1. A loyal army of super soldiers.
2. Slave labor
3. Organ harvesting
4. Asexual reproduction
I think of "The Island" as a good example of Organ Harvesting gone wrong.
Would a cloned human, from a Christian perspective, have a soul?
Would the interactions that may be achieved by the clone be attributed to electrical impulses to outside stimluli or a guiding conscious soul?
Is a clone really human? and if not, does it deserve equal treatment under the law? What would human's expectations of the clone be?
There are so many more questions than answers to this. Thanks a lot, John.
In response to your comments:
1.) For how long?
2.) The equal treament issues some "human rights" advocates would come up with because they seem so much like humans.
3.) See Above
4.) What sort of fun is that?
PAX
JD
I'm with trekkerjay: none that seem ethical or psychologically sound.
Still, we could use a 3rd partner at my house to cook and clean and do all the stuff we have no time to do. If we clone me, would that make my husband a bigamist?
John said:
1. A loyal army of super soldiers.
2. Slave labor
3. Organ harvesting
4. Asexual reproduction
I could even think of another- to bring back to "life" a beloved relative - parent, child, brother, sister, husband, wife, etc- who perhaps died an untimely death... but adding that one to yours, my point is still... nothing ethical or psychologically sound.
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