genetic cloning

2. Ethical Issues in
Genetic Cloning

3. CONTENTS
• Meaning of cloning
• Ethical Issues
• Why cloning is ethically unacceptable
• Religious views
• PROS and CONS

4. Cloning-What is it?
• The production of multiple, exact copies of a single gene, DNA fragment,
cell line or organism.
• Three types;
1. Therapeutic Cloning
2. Recombinant DNA technology
3. Reproductive Cloning

5. ETHICAL ISSUES

6. Human Cloning is unethically acceptable due to;
• Controlling someone else's makeup
• Instrumentality
• Infertility
• Psychological Risk(Identity and Relationship)
• Physical Risk
• Social Risk

7. Why Cloning is Ethically Unacceptable
1. Controlling someone else's genetic makeup
Control by one human over another is incompatible with ethical notion of human
freedom, in the sense that each human’s genetic identity should be unpredictable and
unplanned
2. Instrumentality
The clone would be a means towards someone else's end, created for the primary benefit
not of the individuals themselves but of some third party. To create another human being
other than primarily for their own sake raises a serious objection, as a removal of the
identity freedom of that new person. It also implies a potential for human exploitation of
the cloned and the clone. This would represent an abuse of human dignity, which would
justify banning worldwide the cloning of a human being.

8. Why Cloning is Ethically Unacceptable
3. Infertility
The idea of creating a child from a child from an infertile couple by cloning
one of them. It raises other problems, such as; instead of being the unique
production of both parents, the child is the copy of both of them. It will not
be the biological child of both parents in the normal sense

9. Why Cloning is Ethically Unacceptable
4. Psychological Effects-Identity and Relationship;
No one knows what would be the psychological problems of identity arising from
nuclear transfer cloning. Am I just a copy of someone else who already exists and
not really "me"? Am I really someone else but put into a different womb? What
will be my relationship to the one I was cloned from? Instead of being the unique
genetic product of both parents, I am the copy of one of them. No one can predict
what the response would be. Presumably they would vary from person to person.
There are sufficient dangers. In other words, even though one could not be sure
how many people would suffer in this way, it would be wrong knowingly to inflict
that risk on someone.

10. Why Cloning is Ethically Unacceptable
5. Physical Risk
How many abnormal babies would be produced to get one right? The success rate
ranges from 0.1-3%. That’s 30 out of 1000 tries. Reasons include; egg and
transferred nucleus may not be compatible, egg and transferred nucleus may not
be able to divide or develop properly, implantation fail might occur, also pregnancy
fail, abnormal gene expression.
6. Social risk
Human cloning would bring risks of abuses to human dignity and exploitation by
unprincipled people.

11. RELIGIOUS VIEWS
• Some people believe that cloning can be similar to playing God. They believe
that God should be the creator of all natural and living things.
• Some religious people believe that if you clone a human being, the clone
doesn’t have a soul.
• People believe that human cloning takes away from an individual being unique
and stresses psychological and social development.
• It is believed that the human has a right for the full human development in a
natural environment and that the human embryo should be left alone after the
14th day of fertilization.

12. PROS CONS
Defective genes could be eliminated There is possibility of fast aging
Faster recovering from traumatic injury There is reduced sense of individuality
Infertility could be eliminated It may reduce the overall value of human life
Cloned body systems can serve as back up systems for humans Weaken diversity and ability of adaptation
Combat Genetic Disease Production of undesirable traits
Replicate animals for research purposes and also alterations of
plant and animals
Invites malpractices into the society
Produce people with desirable traits Humans acting as gods