The Cloning of Humans

Cloning:
· is the asexual (non-coital) reproduction of new individual(s) derived from a single parent and
 genetically identical to the parent.
· the method: the nucleus of a mature unfertilised egg is replaced with the nucleus of a 
specialised body cell of an adult being.  After an electrical shock the cell is implanted in the 
womb and allowed to develop in the normal way.

What does the bible have to say?
The bible does not specific deal with the issue of cloning.  Therefore we need to look at the 
bible as a whole (biblical theology) and deduce from that the ethical and theological 
implications.

Moral Objections
- children are normally (and ought to be according to biblical theology) the issue and outgrowth 
of a personal relationship than the outcome of an individual decision.    Psychological research 
has shown that when children are nurtured in a family with a loving mother and father, they have 
less problems educationally and  psychologically.

- It devalues the human being
Because the clone is 'produced to order' his/her value is in the eyes of the person who gives 
the cell and lies in the fact that they replicate someone else or have certain capacities and 
abilities.  That is, clones become a product that is valued for their properties not as a child 
born out of personal relationship between two people who is valued in itself.

- the clone will not have two biological parents

- cloning will distort natural family affinities.
Is this clone my son, my belated identical twin, or, both?
How will normal family development take place?

- cloning is incompatible with the family as a place of unconditional belonging.  The family is 
built upon the one-flesh unity of a wife and husband, who out of the totality of their shared 
being bring into life a new being who is part of them and yet who is also wholly other than them.
This place of unconditional belonging is bounded by the proper ordering of choice and chance.  
With cloning belonging becomes condition upon the desirability of the offspring.  chance is 
gobbled up by choice and with chance goes the notion of unconditionality.

(Summary of Seminar given by Michael Hill, Ethics Lecturer at Moore Theological College on 
19/10/98 at Christ Church, St Ives)

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