Ethics of Human Cloning: Rights, Risks, and Morality
This paper examines the ethical dimensions of human cloning in the context of the right to live and die. Beginning with the landmark cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996, the paper outlines the American Medical Association's definition of cloning and its potential medical benefits, such as helping infertile couples and creating compatible organ donors. It then analyzes three core ethical objections: the severe medical and technical safety risks facing clones and surrogates, the disruption cloning poses to conventional family structures and reproduction, and the ambiguous rights of cloned individuals. The paper concludes by applying Kantian moral reasoning to argue that human cloning cannot be ethically justified given its dangers and implications for human dignity.
- Introduction to Human Cloning: Background, definition, and core ethical questions
- Medical and Technical Safety Concerns: Severe risks to clones, surrogates, and offspring
- Cloning and the Disruption of Family and Reproduction: How cloning undermines conventional family structures
- Rights and Identity of Cloned Individuals: Ethical standing and autonomy of cloned persons
- Kantian Ethics and the Moral Case Against Cloning: Universal principle applied to reject cloning morally
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What makes this paper effective
- Organizes its argument into three clearly labeled ethical objections, giving the essay a logical, easy-to-follow structure that builds toward a moral conclusion.
- Grounds abstract ethical concerns in concrete examples, such as Dolly the sheep's shortened lifespan and the Large Offspring Syndrome, making technical risks tangible for the reader.
- Applies a named philosophical framework — Kantian universalizability — to synthesize the preceding objections into a coherent moral judgment, demonstrating academic ethical reasoning.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of an established ethical framework (Kantian moral law and the universal principle) as a capstone argumentative move. Rather than merely listing objections, the writer uses Kant's categorical imperative to test whether cloning could be universally endorsed — a technique that elevates the analysis from opinion to principled ethical reasoning. This approach is characteristic of applied ethics writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with background on cloning's origins and definition, then states the central ethical questions. Three thematic sections follow — safety risks, family disruption, and cloned individuals' rights — each addressing a distinct dimension of the debate. The conclusion synthesizes these concerns through a Kantian lens, arriving at a personal moral judgment against pursuing cloning. References are cited in APA style throughout.
Introduction to Human Cloning
The topic of human cloning came into the limelight in 1996, when Dolly the sheep was cloned by embryologist Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute, Scotland. The American Medical Association (AMA) defines cloning as the "production of genetically identical organisms via somatic cell nuclear transfer" (Farnsworth, 2000). Essentially, it is the production of a child with the same genes as its monozygotic parent, and involves inserting the parent's DNA into an enucleated egg and then chemically stimulating the egg to undergo cell division, forming an embryo that is a complete genetic copy of its parent and DNA donor (Farnsworth, 2000).
Despite its potential benefits — including helping infertile couples have an offspring complete with either the father's or the mother's genetic makeup, and creating humans who could serve as compatible organ donors for one another — cloning has faced large-scale opposition from religious experts, the medical community, and the general public. At the heart of this opposition are two ethical questions: Does a child born as a genetic duplicate of another person have the same rights and privileges as that person? And, given the risks involved, is it fair to subject an innocent individual to such high-risk procedures and such a high probability of failure and deformation? These two ethical concerns are examined across the three areas discussed below.
Medical and Technical Safety Concerns
Scientists place a reconstructed egg's chances of success at a dismal 1-in-1,000 (Wordpress, 2013). This extraordinary safety risk has been the primary reason why human cloning has been so widely opposed by the public. The probability of a clone dying in the womb is roughly 1,000 times higher than that of surviving; and even those that do survive face a high likelihood of birth defects that could eventually lead to death. Of even greater concern is that the mother or surrogate faces a significant risk of death, given that Large Offspring Syndrome — which causes a clone to overgrow in the womb — is considered nearly inevitable in such cases (Wordpress, 2013).
Furthermore, clones face higher chances of early death due to orthopedic problems caused by the electrical and chemical procedures involved in their creation (Wordpress, 2013). Dolly herself died at the age of four — six years below the average life expectancy of a normal sheep — illustrating in stark terms the physical toll that the cloning process can impose on the resulting organism.
References
Farnsworth, J. (2000). To clone or not to clone: The ethical question. Farnsworth.com. Retrieved 7 October 2014 from http://thefarnsworths.com/science/cloning.htm
Wordpress. (2013). Ethical issues surrounding human cloning. Wordpress. Retrieved 6 October 2014 from http://planetparadigm.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/ethical-issues-surrounding-human-cloning/
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