Religion Project, Human Cloning

As our society progresses, so change our technology, science, morals and ethics. The topic of human cloning has been in the media for decades, and this may have dulled us to the severity of it. Movies depict cloning as a radical extreme that is far from what we are able to accomplish at present, but they have introduced us to the idea of a society where humans have been cloned. The problem is that some people want this society now.

One of the major problems with human cloning, and cloning in general, is how much effort is wasted on failed projects. "Over 90% of cloned embryos miscarry or are stillborn. Dolly the cloned sheep was the sole survivor out of 277 attempts. Those few who survive to birth have serious medical problems. Dolly, for example, developed premature arthritis and lived only half a normal life span." [1]. Mammalian cloning has proved very unsuccessful. "An attempt to clone a guar failed, it died 2 days after birth. [An] argali sheep [was not able to] produce viable embryos. [All in all], the uncertainties of cloning attempts are outweighed by the benefits." [2].

It must be said that though we have a lot of control over our lives nowadays, the future does not bode well for our humanity if we keep on this path. Being able to clone oneself is not the way we were intended to produce offspring. "Cloning personifies our desire fully to control the future, while being subject to no controls ourselves... [and] thanks to modern notions of individualism and the rate of cultural change, we see ourselves not as linked to ancestors and defined by traditions, but as projects of our own self creation, not only as self made men but also as man-made selves, and self cloning is simply an extension of such rootless and narcissistic self creation."[3].

We are gifts from God and should be treated as such. Because "[t]he human person is not just a body, a physical being, and human procreation cannot be considered just a biological process[,]" [4] we must look at human cloning as an unnatural process, and therefore, not a good thing. With this reasoning, people may start to question in vitro fertilization as a natural process. Though it is not technically natural, all the elements, sperm and egg, are present. *POSTER*

The church's view resides with this statement: "Asexual reproduction violates the fundamental nature and dignity of human sexuality... cloning or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union."[5].

In conclusion, human cloning should remain a thing for the movies, as it is safer for us all in our imaginations. Our morals, ethics and our very humanity are at stake here, and we need to know that "any procedure that would place a human embryo or fetus at disproportionate risks would be immoral." [6]. Pope John Paul II has said this on the topic. "The killing of innovent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes and absolutely unacceptable act." Cloning is essentially at the heart of his words.
*POSTER 2*

[1] Human Cloning vs. Human Dignity, Richard M. Doerflinger http://www.nccbuscc.org/prolife/programs/rlp//03doerflinger.htm
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_the_Sheep
[3] http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n10_v114/ai_19283418
[4] Respecting Human LIfe at Its Beginning, The Catholic Moral Tradition
[5] Same as last
[6] Same as last

Just so you all know, I am not actually against human cloning. I am not exactly for it, not having studied it and all, but I had to pick a topic for my respect for life speech and since I was writing my final project story for English about cloning, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. It turns out though that I made up most of the information for my story leaving me until the very last night to write this. Ah well... I know it isn't really a good speech, but it's the best i could do in an hour, so I'm sure my mark will reflect that.