The Impact of Human Cloning on the Family and Society

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Imagine yourself in a society in which individuals with virtually incurable diseases could gain the essential organs and tissues that perfectly match those that are defected through the use of individual human reproductive cloning. In a perfect world, this could be seen as an ideal and effective solution to curing stifling biomedical diseases and a scarcity of available organs for donation. However, this approach in itself contains many bioethical flaws and even broader social implications of how we could potentially view human clones and integrate them into society. Throughout the focus of this paper, I will argue that the implementation of human reproductive cloning into healthcare practices would produce adverse effects upon family dynamic and society due to its negative ethical ramifications. Perhaps the most significant conception of family stems from a religious conception of assisted reproductive technologies and cloning and their impact on family dynamics with regard to its “unnatural” approach to procreation. Furthermore, the broader question of the ethical repercussions of human reproductive cloning calls to mind interesting ways in which we could potentially perceive and define individualism, what it means to be human and the right to reproduction, equality and self-creation in relation to our perception of family.
In recent years, the development of cloning technology in non-human species has led to new ways of producing medicine and improving our understanding of development and genetics. But what exactly is human reproductive cloning and how has this technology been developed? The term “cloning” refers more specifically to a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this process, the DNA from the cell of ...

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...on International, 24 Feb. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Golombok, S. and MacCallum, F. (2003), Practitioner Review: Outcomes for parents and children following non-traditional conception: what do clinicians need to know? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44: 303–315.

Golombok, S., Murray, C., Brinsden, P. and Abdalla, H. (1999), Social versus Biological Parenting: Family Functioning and the Socioemotional Development of Children Conceived by Egg or Sperm Donation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40: 519–527.

Caulfield, Timothy. "Human Cloning Laws, Human Dignity and the Poverty of the Policy Making Dialogue." BMC Medical Ethics. BioMed Central Ltd., 29 July 2003. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. .

"Colossians 1:16." The Holy Bible. New York: American Bible Society, 1992. N. pag. Print.

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