From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Thu Jan 02 2003 - 10:50:00 MST
There is a good op-ed article in the Los Angeles Times this morning,
by Michael Shermer of Skeptic magazine. Because you need to register
in order to read it, I am including it in full below.
This is the strongest support for cloning (actually, probably just
about the only article supporting it) that I have seen in a mainstream
publication. Most of his points are similar to what we have made here:
that clones would be people deserving of full human rights, and not some
kind of biological products or mechanisms. But in the end he takes
a view that is probably even stronger than many here would support.
He concludes, "Let's run the cloning experiment and see what happens."
Given the nature of the opposition to the human cloning claims, I am
coming around to Shermer's position. It is very disturbing to see how
people are trying to frame the debate. Especially as we look beyond
simple human cloning to the next major step, genetic engineering, we
can't allow the issues to be discussed in these terms. If the question
is whether we are playing God, we can't win, because we are playing
God in the sense these people mean it. We have to follow Shermer's
argument and trump this point by explaining that Man has been playing
God throughout the history of modern medicine.
It will be tragic if the cloned children suffer from medical problems.
But we don't stop people with hereditary illnesses from having children,
and their kids also face an increased risk of problems. Instead,
we try to help the parents and children. We offer genetic counseling.
We offer therapeutic interventions. And in the future, we will have even
more effective medical technologies to help. If the cloned children
suffer complications, that will be all the more motivation to develop
the technology to heal them, and to heal other people as well.
In the next few decades, medicine will advance tremendously. Even if the
new reproductive technologies create problems, let's dedicate ourselves to
fixing them. As Extropians I think we can and should support technologies
which expand the range of options available to humanity, and human cloning
is an important example. I will follow Shermer's lead and take a more
positive role in supporting human cloning technology and other advanced
reproductive interventions.
Hal
> January 2, 2003
>
> Wake Up, Cloning's Day Has Come
>
> By Michael Shermer, Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine.
>
> Ever since scientists in the 1970s first began cloning experiments on
> simple organisms, ethicists and lawmakers have been wringing their hands
> in Ludditean fear and existential angst over what to do when cloning
> technology approaches the human barrier.
>
> On Friday, Brigitte Boisselier, the scientific director of Clonaid --
> associated with the Raelians, a group that believes that life was seeded
> on Earth by aliens from other worlds -- announced that her team had done
> just that with a 31-year-old American woman who, they claim, gave birth
> to the world's first human clone, nicknamed, appropriately, Eve.
>
> Whether the Raelians succeeded is irrelevant. It is clear that someone,
> somewhere, some time soon is going to generate a human clone. And once
> that happens, others will be quick to follow through the door and we
> will learn whether medical complications make cloning impractical as a
> form of fertility enhancement.
>
> What I find disturbing is not cloning per se but three fundamental
> myths about it: the Identical Personhood Myth; the Playing God Myth;
> and the Human Rights and Dignity Myth.
>
> The Identical Personhood Myth is perpetuated by those who say: "It's
> a horrendous crime to make a copy of someone." But what they should be
> saying is: "Clone all you like; you'll never produce another you because
> environment matters as much as heredity."
>
> The best scientific evidence to date indicates that roughly half the
> variance between humans is accounted for by genetics; the balance is
> by environment. Because it is impossible to duplicate the near-infinite
> number of environmental permutations that go into producing an individual
> human being, cloning is no threat to unique personhood.
>
> The Playing God Myth has numerous promoters, the latest being Stanley
> M. Hauerwas, a professor of theological ethics at Duke University who
> responded to the Clonaid announcement with this unequivocal denouncement:
> "The very attempt to clone a human being is evil. The assumption that
> we must do what we can do is fueled by the Promethean desire to be our
> own creators."
>
> He is not alone in his belief. A 1997 Time/CNN poll, conducted on the
> heels of the news that a cloned sheep, Dolly, had been born, revealed that
> 74% of Americans said it was "against God's will" to clone human beings.
>
> But cloning scientists don't want to play God any more than fertility
> doctors do. What's godly about in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer
> and other fully sanctioned birth enhancement technologies? Absolutely
> nothing. Yet we cheerfully accept these advances because we are accustomed
> to them.
>
> The Human Rights and Dignity Myth is embodied in the Roman Catholic
> Church's official statement against cloning, based on the belief that
> it denies "the dignity of human procreation and of the conjugal union."
>
> The same sentiment is also found in a Sunni Muslim cleric's demand that
> "science must be regulated by firm laws to preserve humanity and its
> dignity."
>
> The reality is that clones will be no more alike than twins raised in
> separate environments, and no one is suggesting that twins do not have
> rights or dignity, or that twinning should be banned.
>
> In the interest of assuaging these and other fears, I propose the Three
> Laws of Cloning.
>
> * A human clone is a human being no less unique in his or her personhood
> than an identical twin.
>
> * A human clone is a human being with all the rights and privileges that
> accompany this legal and moral status.
>
> * A human clone is a human being to be accorded the dignity and respect
> due any member of our species.
>
> Instead of restricting or banning cloning, I propose that we adopt the
> Three Laws of Cloning.
>
> The soul of science is found in courageous thought and creative
> experiment, not in restrictive fear and prohibitions. For science to
> progress it must be given the opportunity to succeed or fail.
>
> Let's run the cloning experiment and see what happens.
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