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What is Cloning?

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The English word “clone” derives from a Greek term

meaning a sprout or a twig.

Cloning refers to an asexual process of reproduction that

results in an exact genetic duplicate of the original.

The Benefits of Cloning

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Possible benefits of cloning:

Cloning could make animal husbandry more efficient.

Cloning has the potential both to reduce human suffering and

to extend human life.

Cloning also has the potential to enlarge our knowledge

about how cells differentiate and reproduce.

Ramifications of Human Cloning

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Parents could clone one child as a replacement for a child

who died.

Parents might want to clone a child to provide compatible

organ transplants for a diseased relative.

Individuals might want to guarantee themselves

immortality--if not in soul, at least in body.

Some might want to clone a human just for the prestige

from doing what no one else has been able to

accomplish.

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Homosexuals might want to clone an offspring so that

they can have a child.

Women’s liberation would be complete, since no male

would be needed.

We could learn much about human embryonic

development by researching human cloning.

Medical Ethics and Human

Cloning

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Even many atheists have ethical problems with human

cloning.

Gunther Stent: “The idea of cloning humans is morally and

aesthetically completely unacceptable.”

A Christian: “Although there has been a good deal of rhetoric

on the evils that are just ahead. I have yet to hear a cogent

ethical argument as to why even the cloning of a human

would be wrong.”

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Ethical arguments against cloning:

Any subject for a medical experiment must (a) know the risks

involved; and (b) give “informed consent.”

Medical ethics also require that the experiment be to the

subject’s benefit.

Biblical Ramifications of Cloning

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The Bible teaches us to protect human life.

God protects those who are “down-and-out” (Deut 10:17-19).

“Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor;

Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow” (Is 1:17).

Matt 25:31-46.

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The Bible teaches that we should respect human dignity.

Humans are made in God’s image (Gen l:26-27).

“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed;

For in the image of God He made man” (Gen 9:6).

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We are to prevent human suffering.

Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were

oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).

Jesus sent the Twelve out “to preach the kingdom of God and

to heal the sick” (Lk 9:2).

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We are to provide children with family support.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old

he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).

“And you, fathers, do not provoke you children to wrath, but

bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord”

(Eph. 6:4).

“If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for

those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse

than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8).

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We are to be good stewards with our finances.

“Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits

of all your increase” (Prov 3:9).

In the Parable of the Talents, “the lord of those servants came

and settled accounts with them” (Matt 25:19).

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The question everyone wants to know is, “Will a clone

have a soul?”

“The body without the spirit is dead” (Js. 2:26).

If a clone is living, he will have a soul.

He, therefore, will need the Gospel just like everyone else.