Human cloning draws ethical
concerns
By Dave Stephens
Assistant
Campus Editor
As the senior pastor of University Church, Rev.
T.J. Jenney makes his feelings on human cloning clear.
"I'm definitely against human cloning," said Jenney.
"It's immoral."
Jenney's not alone in his stance against human
cloning. Similar sentiments have been issued by the Vatican, President
George W. Bush and members of Congress.
The discussion on the ethics of human cloning has
grown louder in recent days with the announcement by a Massachusetts
bio-tech company that it has cloned a six-cell human embryo. The embryo
was cloned in an attempt to provide embryonic stem cells for medical
research, raising the ethical question of how far is too far when looking
for cures to human ailments.
"I'm against human cloning," said Jenney. "But
at the same time we need to weigh what people can do to ease human suffering
through genetic engineering with what is ethically and morally right."
Jenney said he believes that life begins very early,
long before the actual birth of the baby; a belief he says that comes
from the Bible.
"There's a lot of benefit to be had from genetic
engineering," said Jenney, "but we have to be really careful about what
steps we take to get those benefits."
One possible way to advance genetic engineering,
without raising as many ethical concerns, is to do more research on
animals, said Mark Hermodson, a professor of biochemistry.
"We can learn an awful lot from experiments with
other species," said Hermodson. "And we have learned from other species,
that is how experiments have been done in biology in the past."
Hermodson said the genetics of species are very
similar, meaning that by doing genetic experiments on mammals scientists
can learn more about the human genome.
Edward Simon, a professor of biology and an "observant
Jew," said that according to orthodox Jewish law, the cloning of a human
embryo is basically allowable.
"Jewish law says that until the embryo is 40 days
old it's basically 'mere water,'" said Simon. "That was a law that was
stated 1,800 years ago, long before cloning was ever imagined."
Simon, whose sons are both orthodox rabbis, said
he supports the kind of human cloning that was done by Advanced Cell
Technology, known as "therapeutic cloning."
"I personally feel that cloning — bringing
people to term — should be prohibited," said Simon. "It's not going
to work out the way that the science-fiction writers think, but if someone
wants to ban (human cloning), that is fine by me."
What should not be banned, said Simon, is the use
of embryonic tissues to find ways to help end human suffering.
"The underlying thing is that preserving life is
of the utmost importance," said Simon.
Hermodson agreed with Simon, saying that banning
all aspects of human cloning would be an overreaction.
"There are a lot of potentials that could relieve
human suffering way down the road," said Hermodson. "There are potential
uses for this; to say that we can't tamper with human cloning would
be a mistake."
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