Select one of the following prompts to address in your post:
Instructions: Reread especially pp. 243-250 from Michael Tooley’s “Moral Status of Cloning Humans” and evaluate:
1. his reasons for why we should clone human beings;
2. his assertion that it is morally permissible to create “mindless human organ banks” of human clones.
Questions you may wish to consider in your post:
Are there any significant drawbacks for society as a whole to the advantages he offers for human cloning? What might they be, and for you, do they “outweigh” the benefits that might come from human cloning?
Do “mindless human organ banks” seem too “ghoulish” or creepy for you even to consider? Imagine, for a moment, just a mindless organ bank of dogs or puppies that people could access for their injured or diseased pets: How does that image sit with you?
Is he right that if one rejects mindless human organ banks, “one is urging a course of action that will result in the deaths of innocent people”? If we are uneasy with this idea, do we just need to get over it in the interest of relieving human suffering?
*You may wish to look back at my summary of his article to help you with Tooley’s overall argument.
OR:
Instructions: Reread the case presentation on pp. 278-279 titled “A Birth to Save a Life” and address the following in your post:
How would you evaluate Adam’s parents’ reasons for having conceived him? Is their primary reason for having Adam – to create cells needed for his sister’s bone marrow transplant – irrelevant if they also love and care for him just as they do for his sister Molly?
The technology to discern the genetic make-up of an early-stage embryo is here – and here to stay: Should parents be able to use the information from these tests as they desire? Do hospitals, clinics, or governmental agencies have the right to demand a “good reason” for administering these tests and any decisions based on their results, or do you think this would qualify as “unwarranted intrusion into a person’s private affairs”?
Adam’s parents, for instance, need not have offered the reasons they did for prenatal testing; they could have said nothing at all or come up with a reason that no one would have taken issue with. Won’t some parents just “lie” if they suspect their reasons might disqualify them from receiving the tests or acting upon their results? How would you compel parents to tell the truth?
Finally, tell us how you think Adam might feel when at, say, age 15 or 16, he is able to understand the full implications of why he was conceived. Is it possible that he might feel especially valued – “Without me, my sister wouldn’t be alive. My life serves a very valuable purpose”? Or, do you think he might come to mistrust his parents’ real feelings for him – “Do they really love me as much as they love Molly, or do they still see me primarily as a means to an end – an instrument for salvaging Molly’s life”?
