Ethics and Morality: Unit Questions
LC2
Does Virtue Lead to Happiness?
'Tis popular belief, good character leads to happiness
By doing good, you feel good
Is this always so? I don't think so;
On the rack, happiness and virtuousness are unrelated
Ain't happiness the feeling of pleasantness?
What is pleasant about dying; dying for a virtuous cause in the hands of unfair torturers?
Nothing, not even with the highest degree of mental discipline 'Tis true; virtuousness and happiness coincide;
But only when happiness is derived from virtuousness;
Strokes of bad luck ruin all this sometimes
LC2: To Clone or not to Clone; the Pros and Cons of Cloning
Cloning refers to the technological process of creating a genetic replica of an existing organism by fusing the organism's genetic material with an enucleated egg, and then stimulating the reconstructed egg to undergo cell division (Farnsworth, 2000). The process usually results in a genetic duplicate of the person being cloned. Depending on the procedures undertaken, the clone could either be a copy of the original parent's stem cells (therapeutic cloning), a copy of their entire being (reproductive cloning), or a copy of their DNA segments (gene cloning). Cloning was first practiced in Scotland in 1997, with the cloning of Dolly the Lamb (Farnsworth, 2000). However, consensus is yet to be reached about whether or not the procedure ought to be practiced on human beings.
The potential advantages of cloning include the ability to reverse the aging process by having cloned...
First, the procedure is very risky, and the chances of success are minimal. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the person being cloned will even get to enjoy the benefits of the same. Moreover, there are high degrees of uncertainty surrounding the procedure -- given the complications witnessed in the Dolly case, experts have postulated that there could be substantial physical and mental harms associated with cloning (Bergeron, 2004). Furthermore, the artificial creation of human beings would be a substantial threat to evolution, biodiversity, and human reproduction. Finally, the procedure is surrounded by serious ethical concerns -- does the clone have the same rights and privileges as their parent; or does the latter reserve the right to manipulate them as they please?
In my view, cloning is an outstanding development in the field of biomedical technology; however, despite its inherent benefits, it ought not to be used for the reproduction of human beings. Only God reserves the right to give and take life; granting ourselves this right through…
