At the rate at which science understands everything from stem cells to cloning, it would be a matter of time in which human cloning is a scientific possibility which implementation will be mired in political and religious contention. Therefore, we should consider the issue of whether human cloning is permissible and acceptable.
There is a danger of creating a new classification of human beings through cloning. We would have clones created not out of the will of a man and a woman but from the will of a group of scientists and politicians. Will this clone be able to exercise his rights over himself, being a creation of a collective group of people ? Who owns his rights or is he merely a property of a scientific outfit ?
Cloning debases humanity, and makes the clone susceptible to exploitation and abuse. The horror of science fiction stories of human farms may well become a reality, if the rich and powerful have their way. Already, certain third world countries are favored by rich ‘medical tourists’ for organ transplants because of robust human rights in their home country . In a slum area in Manila nicknamed ‘One Kidney Island’, 3000 men live with only one kidney due to the thriving organ trade. The natural process of living and dying becomes convoluted with the deliberate extension of lives.
There will be an eventual erosion of the gene pool for the human race, if cloning is permitted and common place. Like the good intention of most scientific inventions, things have a way of going awry because of populist policies, carelessness or abuse. Already, in families with no known cases of inbreeding, people are born with incurable diseases due to unknown defectives genes. One need only to read ‘The Family That Does Not Sleep’ by D.T. Max to realize that even in the age of scientific enlightenment, there are still so many diseases which go undetected until too late. With deliberate human cloning, it will suffer a similar pitfall as inbreeding and unleash a whole new slew of medical problems.
If human cloning were to become common place, would a clone be treated as a second class citizen or enjoy the full privileges as one naturally born? Will his views on moral, social, religious and political issues be taken into account?
There is nothing altruistic about human cloning, not least to the clone himself. It is likely that a human clone is possible in our life time but that does not mean it is ethical. Unless policy makers and philosophers establish an agreed dogma on where clones stand in society, we are far from ready to accept them in our lives.
