Sunday, December 14, 2014

Would human clones have souls?

The advances that have been made in the medical field truly are astounding, and cloning (regardless of where you stand on the issue of its ethical status) is a remarkable scientific achievement. But as with many other new medical technologies and procedures it shares an issue and concern that is associated with the slippery slope fallacy. It seems to me that in the case of cloning organs this practice is morally permissible, it solves the problems and stresses that accompanies those in life-threatening situations in need of organ transplant. But how can limitations be placed on the distance one is able to go? To me, the cloning of a human being is morally wrong (a view I think most of you agree with, at least thats what I gleaned from our class discussions) but the valid arguments we may have, surely proponents of the rightness of human cloning will have seemingly valid arguments as well. So because there is the potential of something harmful or wrong coming from the ability to genetically clone organs, and consequently human beings, does that mean that we shouldn't encourage further development?
Another issue I have arises from my own religious perspective. God creates each of us with a soul, so when we create a human being how would the soul be accounted for? I guess it could be looked at from thinking that because God of course knew the person was being "created" He assigned them a soul. Whenever I really start to think about this and the distinctions and implications, I get really confused. Its difficult to adequately describe or explain the problem. Because we aren't necessarily given souls in a sense that we receive them, we're just born with them. Right? What do y'all think?


1 comment:

  1. I am not disagreeing with your opinion but would like to ask/make a opinion to also think of, even if every single person is born with a soul do you believe that their personality, beliefs, feelings, likes, dislikes, etc are automatically installed in them? Or maybe that everyone becomes who they are over time with trails and errors? If option 2 is correct then logically we must assume that clones could grow to do the same.

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