Human cloning : legal, ethical and social issues

Abstract

Human cloning inspires the most horrific of thoughts - multitudes of identical human beings in an organised and hierarchical society. Huxley's masterpiece "A Brave New World" has much to do with these conceptions of genetic engineering. Furthermore, the birth of Dolly, the cloned sheep, stirred the imagination of the public, for the possibility of human cloning became closer to reality. From a cell in an adult ewe's mammary gland, embryologists Ian Wilmut and his colleagues managed to create a lamb named Dolly, scoring an advance in reproductive technology as unsettling as it was startling. Dolly is the living proof that an adult cell can revert to the embryonic stage and produce a full new being that is genetically identical to that cell. Not since God took Adam's rib and fashioned Eve had anything so fantastic occurred! What Wilmut discovered was not a new technological trick but the discovery of a new law of nature. One can outlaw technique but not repeal biology. Politicians and legislators are therefore in a fix and many claim that no amount of regulation can stop cloning. This not because it is too easy to repeat or the technology tQ replicable, but because the ultimate good is immense. The study of cloning can give the world deep insights into such puzzles as to why the spinal cord, heart muscle and brain tissue that will not regenerate after injury. Of course, the potential for evil can be greater and banning cloning in Malta, the UK or the United States will only proceed to experiments being conducted on remote islands or underground laboratories, as was the case with in vitro fertilisation in the 70's. The public was also recently presented with the map of the human genome - another breakthrough in human biology. The startling results produced evidence that human beings are not that genetically diverse from each other or from other animals. Genetic determinists, who adamantly proclaimed a ban against human cloning due to the unethical creation of genetically similar human beings, were crushed by this discovery. The studies show that environmental and cultural influences are the reasons for the diversity within humanity. Dolly's birth set in motion an international movement to ban reproductive human cloning. This resulted in various international instruments as well as national legislations that prohibit the creation of human embryos for cloning purposes. Furthermore, the religious and ethical debate surrounding the creation and destruction of embryos was reopened. Human cloning can well be described as one of the most important discoveries that surrounds humanity and the world that it forms part of. It is important to understand its implications within the broadest possible spectrum of religious, ethical, sociological, and legal considerations in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and also to protect the future of humanity.