This piece was submitted as a letter to the editor to the Dayton
Daily News, but it has not been published.
Humans will be cloned. It is inevitable, now that another mammal,
a sheep, has been cloned. What will be the moral status of these
new humans? Will they be considered fully human, with all the
protections and rights enjoyed by others conceived naturally?
Or will they be considered "less than human": expendable
property?
Why could cloned humans be considered less than human? As always
has been the case in human history, it would be to serve the selfish
interests of others. Think of the advantages. A clone could serve
as an organ bank for the human from whom DNA was taken. A group
of clones with the same DNA could be divided into control and
experimental subgroups for the testing of new drugs or of new
medical procedures. Clones could be used to produce human chemicals.
Clones could be used to carry out dangerous tasks. Human clones
could be slaves.
Preposterous, you may think. Consider the devaluation of human
life exemplified by abortion on demand, using parts from living
unborn children for transplantation, experiments performed on
human embryos conceived only for that purpose, the destruction
of unwanted frozen human embryos conceived artificially, and the
danger faced by the aged and those with disabilities if assisted
suicide is legalized. Valuing human clones as expendable property
is the next logical step.
The moral status of human clones must be considered carefully
by society. Legal safeguards need to be put into place to protect
this new life.
Byron C. Hall, Jr.
Copyright © Byron C. Hall, Jr.