On Cloning - by Dave Vassilev

I think one of the moral problems that arise from cloning is when you consider the mental well being of the resulting children. As described there are a lot of purposes to cloning, but when I consider human cloning I believe it breaches the morality on some standards. Having a clone will always have reasons attached other then simply “wanting to have a child.” For example, children conceived through means other then cloning, in most cases grow up knowing they were brought onto this earth because mom and dad wanted them. However, for a cloned child no matter who they were cloned from that child will know that they were brought onto this earth because mom and dad wanted them but for another reason as well. Usually that reason will always remain with the child and to some extent will be damaging.

I also don’t think that cloning of humans can be ok for some because of some reasons and not for others. I think this is one topic that is simply immoral no matter what the circumstance. For example, let’s say a child is cloned from the DNA of a brother that needs a bone marrow donor. Also let’s assume that the parents were planning on having a second child to begin with, and that a clone would solve everyone’s problems. My initial reaction is to think that it’s ok for them to clone a child. I mean, there is a large amount of evidence suggesting that genes are not the only thing that determine what a person will be. However, in a situation where it seems that everyone wins we go back to the problem of the first one. The child growing up will always reflect on the fact that he is his brother’s copy, even if he is treated differently and acts differently. That alone takes away even if a small part of that person’s own self worth. He was purposely made as a copy of someone else.