It's an ambiguous term: molecular cloning, cellular cloning, embryo twinning, and nuclear somatic transfer (NST)

1. Molecular cloning--strings of DNA containing genes are duplicated in a host bacterium

2. Cellular--copies of a cell are made, making a "cell line".

3. Embryo twinning--an embryo already formed sexually is split into twins.

1. NST--taking a nucleus of an adult cell and implant it in an egg cell where the nucleus has been removed (this was how Ian Wilmut created "Dolly"); a fusion occurs with an electric current.

1. Gregory E. Pence, Who is Afraid of Human Cloning?

1. His Main Arguments for Cloning

1. to improve humanity--to give more power to create children who will be free of some common genetic disease, who may be smarter, stronger, live longer, more playful, and live happier (p.167)

1. why is this moral:

1. we would choose to be born in the best possible way (applies Rawl's notion of

fairness determine by a social contract operating under the "veil of ignorance")

2. we owe the best possible future for the future generations

1. we already work with this principle with animals--breed them to be better suited to their environment
2. we are not substantively different than animals and hence should weaken

1. reproductive freedom--this is a fundamental right (p. 56)

1. Criticism of Religious Objections

1. the Bible is a fable based on a fatalist view which is no longer tenable (p. 121-2)
2. the separation of Church and State forbids using religious grounds to base a federal ban
3. a legitimate religious objection would have to show that cloning does not improve humanity (p. 165)

1. Allen Verhey (from a taped interview on Mars Hill Journal, vol. 45, July/August 2000)

1. Objections to Cloning

1. it violates the autonomy of the individual

1. autonomy presupposes that one is free within one's limitations
2. the most basic limitation is nature which reproduces by joining egg and sperm, not just replicating the egg or sperm
3. in creating another's "natural" pattern after another's person "nature," we take away a person's fundamental basis for autonomy--it's a form of "genetic enslavement"

1. it's hard to determine the difference between what we prefer about others and what a person must have to be her own autonomous self

1. cloning would most likely be done by what we prefer and hence would diminish the other person's uniqueness.

3. cloning not only leaves out but prevents any sense of God's contributions to a person's uniqueness.