What Are the Ethical Issues of Human Cloning

There is ongoing controversy regarding the issue of human cloning in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia which have made attempts or have done research in reproductive cloning. Countries like Australia have prohibited human cloning in 2006. (NHMRC, 2007) Advocates who involve congress members, editorial writers, fertility specialists...and so on gave benefits of human cloning, yet not enough to justify the moral and ethical issues underlying the controversy. Human cloning refers to the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual. This essay will illustrate the major ethical concerns associated with human cloning that lead to the conclusion that human cloning should not be encouraged. The greatest moral objection against human cloning lies in the claim that individuals may be unnecessarily harmed, either during experiments or by expectations after birth. Given the immature technology of human cloning, safety issues may arise. Secondly, at the level of human rights, human cloning may violate two fundamental principles which human rights are based on: the principle of equality between individuals and the principle of non-discrimination. (de Dios Vial Correa, year unknown, internet) Furthermore, the issue of whether human clones are subject to all human rights are questioned, it is ambiguous regarding this issue. Lastly, the issue of ‘expectation’ is common in cloned children, they are likely to be expected to excel in a certain area depending on the cloned parent whom genes are extracted. In other words, such expectations will exert a significant amount of psychological pressure on human clones, especially when growing up. Moreover, the future path of human clones may be decided even before their birth, thus leaving no options of self-independence.

To begin with, medical and technical safety of reproductive cloning process is regarded as the most significant ethical

Bibliography: McConville, P.S. (2001) ‘Physicians and Cloning’ Current Surgery 58(4), 399-401 Morales, N President’s Council on Bioethics (2002, July) Human Cloning and human dignity: An ethical inquiry. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2005) ‘Human Cloning Ethical Issues) Van Arsdale, K Wilmut, I. (2003) ‘Dolly- her life and legacy’ in Cloning Stem Cells, 99-100 Wright, TG