Quote:
Originally posted by a1s@Mar 12 2006, 10:06 PM
I was reading an article recently, the author was strongly against cloning, allthough he didn't say why (cloning wasn't the main point of the article), so I was wondering: what's so bad about genetic engeneering, cloning, birthcontrol and other beneficial but controversial stuff (I mean besides god says so, as god hasn't spoken for at least 500 years)
and let's keep this one civilised, after all we've asked them about it.
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The Catholic objection is that every child is a gift, not an object. It is the child that has rights to life, not the parents that have a right to conceive. The child has the right to a genetic mother and a genetic father, bound to each other by the sacrament of marriage. So the act of cloning violates the rights of the cloned infant and assaults the dignity of marriage [my wife takes her faith seriously, so we have a catholic catechism within easy reach].
A secular humanist (but not pure materialist) would argue that each child deserves to be a unique being, but the expectations of a clone to have the same qualities, interests, or aptitutes will try to stymie a clone's attempt to be its own person. Given how difficult to replicate the complete developement history of an
individual (especially if you can only rely on the subject's memory), the clone is less likely to resemble his parent than the parent's siblings.
The Twin Studies that give the impression that clones will resemble their parents are flawed, at best, or, at worst, outright fraud. Based on identical twins, clones will be their own people.