Against Cloning Essays - Cloning, Human Cloning, Dolly,

Against Cloning Against Cloning Genesis 11:1-9 records the sad story of the building of the tower of Babel. That project stands out as the first chapter in a story that continues to this day, and includes many similar kind of undertakings. As technology and ability increase so does man's ability to do things that are ultimately not in his best interest. The first objection is that cloning is not wise. Wisdom is knowing the end of a matter from the beginning. Proverbs 14:15 tells us The naive believes everything, But the sensible man considers his steps. It is sensible or prudent to think carefully about the path we are walking, and where it will lead us. Proverbs 22:3 reminds us A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished. We want to be the kind of people who are actively looking out for evil before we are involved in it so deeply that escaping it is hard and painful. In Luke 14:28ff Jesus urges this same kind of thinking we He talks about counting costs. In that context He is urging us to count the cost of serving Him, but the principle applies to all of life: we should count the cost before we do something, before we embark on a project. We are at the place where wisdom says we need to stop for several reasons. First, no one really knows how it worked, if it will work again, or exactly why it worked. For certain, we know what they did, we know the procedure. But Roslin scientists have said the cloning was the result of much hit-and-miss experimentation and needs to be refined through further research. Second, no one knows if the procedure is safe. To top it all off, we have no idea where this will lead. The possibilities and problems that could come from human cloning have not been thoroughly mapped out by any means. Interestingly, very little is said about potential good this could bring. No one is saying If we can clone humans we can cure cancer. Science doesn't seem to be asking Should we only Can we? Yet everyone admits the potential for evil is infinitely greaterthan any good that might come of it. Think of some of the complications that may arise. What will we do with bad copies -- malformed babies who are the results of failed cloning experiments? The mind reels with the possibilities for sin and iniquity that human cloning presents. Cloning is just not wise. The folks at Babel ought to have asked Should we? before asking Can we? Are we wise enough to do better than they? The truth is that cloning is an attempt to control and choose who will be born. It is highly doubtful that we have the wisdom, moral sense, or moral fiber necessary to make good choices in that area. We lack the wisdom to develop cloning properly, use it, or understand it. Why should we continue down such a path? How wise is it to board a train going where we don't know, and traveling on untested tracks? The second objection to human cloning is that it can be outright sinful. This is true for several reasons. First, cloning results in abortions. Cloning is a complicated procedure that often does not work, so many, many cloned embryos must be made. In the Dolly experiment there were 277 cell fusions, resulting in 29 that began to grow and were implanted, 13 sheep became pregnant, but finally only 1 lamb. As one ethicist said, It took 277 trials and errors to produce Dolly the sheep, creating a cellular body count that would look like sheer carnage if the cells were human. While toying with (and destroying) sheep embryos is not troubling to anyone what if that were done with human embryos? This is not an article on abortion, but we must advance the principle here that life begins at conception (see Psalm 139:13-16; Jer. 1:5). It is not right for scientists to murder hundreds of lives (that is what embryos are) in their scientific experiments! The means is not ethical. Further, cloning could be used to have a child outside