Human Cloning

 

Last month scientists in Oregon succeeded in cloning a human being. Unabashedly, they admit that women are the target for the raw materials for their work. Human eggs and human tissue are needed to clone a new embryo, a new individual. Regarding this, Dr. David Prentice of Family Research Council (FRC) said that this will lead to human engineering. Moreover FRC informs us the following:

Creating and destroying cloned human embryos to extract their embryonic stem cells is unethical... Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), when done ethically, are more easily and inexpensively created from skin, or any tissue, and have already shown the advantages as laboratory models to study disease and development. Adult stem cells have already proven to be superior at achieving treatments for patients. Over 60,000 people a year around the globe now receive adult stem cell transplants, for dozens of diseases and conditions. Adult stem cells provide not only an ethical source of stem cells but proven practical advantages in terms of patient-specific transplant matching. They also avoid problems with tumors, which are commonly seen with embryonic stem cells.

Cloning also requires subjecting young women to the significant health risk of ovarian hyperstimulation, juicing them up with hormones to harvest numerous eggs and risking their health and life in the process. This turns women into providers of a biotech commodity, and makes them a target for exploitation. (David Prentice, Family Research Council http://www.frc.org/stemcells).

Even though it is not only unnecessary but also dangerous to use human embryos for treating diseases, these cloning scientists and their supporters persist in trying to justify immoral objectives. It appears that they regard a person as merely a mass of flesh and blood, a thing to be manipulated and discarded.

Each person has immense value because we are created by God, our Father in heaven. Let us be careful of specious arguments. Perhaps down the road, for megaprofits corporations will be employing scientists to make designer babies. We must say no to this and see each other as God sees us: the children for whom His Son died, the children whom He loves infinitely.

Father Stanley