Friday, May 31. 2013Congressman’s Human Cloning Ban Would Actually Ban Human CloningTrackbacks
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You are wrong that A2 "only banned the transfer of cloned embryos to a womb." It banned transferring embryos that are not created by sexual reproduction by a man and a woman. So though it doesn't ban SCNT, it is a good law. We should be advocating for expanding it to ban creating embryos rather than just implanting it, but we shouldn't go backwards on what it already does. It is better than a law that only bans SCNT, since there are many other horrible ways to create human embryos besides SCNT.
I wouldn't call any amendment that enshrines the cloning of embryos into the state constitution all the while saying it "bans human cloning" a "good law."
I think it's really unfortunate that during the United Nations debate on passing a global human cloning ban, the Bush White House actually objected because it would only have covered reproductive cloning. In part because of that, the UN effort collapsed, never to be revived since. Right now there is no federal legislation on even reproductive human cloning in the United States, either. Getting support for a total ban on cloning may be possible someday, but as long as people continue to insist on having all or nothing, they are going to get nothing.
I agree, Alexander, by insisting on all or nothing, they collapsed the whole effort and we are far worse off than if we had tried to make incremental progress, starting with an international ban on reproductive cloning.
What's more, they aren't even asking for "all" they are only asking for a ban on SCNT, but not on creating human embryos from experimental manipulations of the genome. This Congressman's bill should take Missouri's A2 as a starting point, and ban creating human embryos by any means other than sexual reproduction, the joining of sperm of a man and an egg of a woman. I think all intentional unmarried conception should be illegal, to stop donor conception, but that would be making the same mistake and winding up with nothing.
I disagree. Bush was right. A ban on only reproductive cloning would only be window dressing. Once cloning embryos for research was widespread and mainstream, reproductive cloning would occur. There is no way we could prevent (or detect) the transferring cloned embryos to willing women and likely the law would be overturned anyway because it interferes with "reproductive rights."
Also, therapeutic cloning is the more insidious of the two because it requires not only the creation of human life asexually, but the destruction of those lives for parts.
That last sentence is the clincher. Reproductive-only bans ban only the LEAST morally objectionable kind of cloning. It'd be like leaving marijuana illegal and legalizing meth.
I think the problem you point out with being unable to detect the implantation of such embryos sounds plausible, but I don't see how having a ban on reproductive cloning only is somehow worse than having no laws at all. The point is...what purpose was served by opposing the UN effort? It's not like a complete global ban on cloning was even a remote possibility then in the short to medium run, or is now. The same is true now in the US at the federal level. I suppose if you think that a ban on reproductive cloning only is literally worthless, such opposition would make sense, but not otherwise.
Banning reproductive cloning allows them to pretend they've already addressed the issue, when they haven't. And it's also, again, banning the least objectionable kind while leaving all the other, WORSE ones legal.
Nicely put.
Response.
Ok, so much for embedding links.
Anyway...response/related thoughts here: http://humanpetition.blogspot.it/2013/06/realist-bioconservatism.html |
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