Cloning Ethics

Introduction

The cloning of human embryos for biomedical research has be an ethical issue ever since the opportunity presented itself. To get a better grasp of the issue, Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry was read to see what the moral issues were involved with the cloning of human embryos. The paper discusses two main points: the cloning of human embryos should be used for biomedical research and the cloning of human embryos should not be used for biomedical research. The paper has broken the section for the use of cloning embryos into two positions, so there are really three positions provided in reading. I have chosen to agree with position one in the paper.

Position one states that we should be able to go through with cloning as long as there are limitations attached. These limitations include deciding on a length in time in which the embryo has to be harvested, having the government monitor the individuals or groups that engage in the research, a ban on commerce in living cloned human embryos, human subjects will be researched on with the highest standards of ethics, a prior scientific review of the proposed uses of cloned embryos to judge their unique medical and scientific benefits, and research will continue into non-embryonic sources of stem cells. Position one, along with positions two and three will be discussed further in the following paper.

Summary

As mentioned before there are three positions that are involved in this debate. The first two positions state that the cloning of embryos should be allowed. However, position one puts limitations on the cloning while position two has does not. As I had stated earlier, I believe position one to be morally ethical. The last position or the third position...

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...o believe that there is no difference with throwing away left over embryos from IVF than there is using cloned embryos for research. If the cloning of embryos for biomedical research is not accepted, then I believe that IVF should be performed so that only one egg is fertilized at a time. This would completely eliminate any embryos that are being discarded by the IVF clinics.

A unanimous decision should be made on when to consider an embryo a human being that has morality. Until then I believe that the embryo is not close to a human life unless it has made it past the fourteen day period in which it is passed the twinning stage. So with this information I come to the conclusion that under specific regulations and laws, including the ones I mentioned in the summary, the cloning of embryos for biomedical research and obtaining stem cells should be deemed acceptable.