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.