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Religion
2007-07-01 16:13:00
Is cloning wrong?
Our lunch group is composed of fellow employees (some Christians and some not) at one of our city’s manufacturing firms. We talk about every topic imaginable. The other day ‘cloning’ was brought up. Most of us who are Christians knew it was wrong, but when asked why, none of us could give any good reasons that the others would accept. I thought perhaps the forum of clerics you have might help.
As Christians and Jews, you have a good instinct about
what is right and wrong. The Catholic Catechism teaches: (Paragraph 2275): “It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material. Certain attempts to influence the chromosomes or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic, but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being, and his/her integrity and identity, which are unique and unrepeatable.” (Para. 2295) “Research or experimentation on the human being cannot make legitimate: actions which in themselves are contrary to the dignity of persons and to the moral law. . . . . Experimentation on human beings is not morally legitimate if it exposes the subject’s life or physical and psychological integrity to disproportionate or avoidable risks.
Experimentation on human beings does not conform to the dignity of the person, if it takes place without the informed consent of the subject, or those who legitimately speak for him.”
To put this in simple language: do not do to another person what you would not want done to you! Each person, from the fetus in the womb to the dying unconscious patient, possesses full human dignity, and is to be respected. Would you wish to have some parts of your living body taken, without your knowledge and consent, to be used for the convenience of other persons? Sometimes a person in good health, moved by love or generosity, will give their functioning bodily organ to an infirm person: in order to provide life and health to that other person, e.g. transplant of an eye or an ear or a kidney or bone-marrow, etc. Such organ transplants are acts of true charity, and (Para. 2296) “are in conformity with the moral law, provided that the physical and psychological risks to the donor are proportionate to the good that is sought for the recipient.
Organ donation after death i
s a noble and meritorious act, and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally admissible if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent.
Moreover, it is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons.”
As regards cloning: attempts for obtaining a new human being without any connection with sexuality through twin fission, cloning or parthenogenesis, are contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union. The Church’s opposition, to cloning embryos for research, is based on good ethics and not simply religious arguments. Therapeutic cloning is an assault upon the dignity of the human person in its most vulnerable and earliest moments of existence. Human cloning sets up a system whereby the suffering of some people is alleviated through the destruction of the lives of others. It creates two types of human life: those destined for life and those destined for death. Hitler promoted such unjust evils in his attempts to create a “super-race.” Therapeutic cloning has not realized any of its intended promise.
While scientists might be able in the future to clone a human body (like the sheep Dolly), a human personality is indivisible and cannot be cloned: because the personality is unique and formed by the soul, which is created immediately by God, and implanted by God, into the fertilized ovum at the moment of human conception.
However, the Church strongly supports research based on adult stem cells, and from those derived from umbilical cord blood. The Church encourages scientific research that could help in the fight against such degenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and cystic fibrosis. But this must be done in accord with God’s commandment: “Thou shalt not kill” or mutilate another human being!
