Thursday, February 7, 2019
Human Reproductive Cloning
In the Introduction of the text for today, we encounter a matter of human reproductive cloning. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America presents this issue to its staff members through scenarios. In one scenario, "Happy Workers:Creation of a Free Market Empire," the idea of cloning for marketing purposes is proposed. Fortunately, in the end, the PPFA did not adopt the policy that this should be a decision through individual choice. I agree with them not adopting this policy for many reasons. For one, the principle of cloning humans for marketing purposes goes against the rights of each cloned human being because even though they are just clones, they are also human and we should treat them as such. This also goes against one of Kant's views, which is one of the few i agree with, that humans should never be seen as a mere means to an end. One other reason I am wholly against this idea of human reproductive cloning is due to the amount of power it would give corporations. They could make their own personal workforce that they would never have to pay or compensate simply because the workforce would only be bred for a single purpose and not have any free will or thought to for themselves. One could also look at the dangers this could pose on a military level. If the military obtained the right to human reproductive cloning, then they could continually produce their own soldiers and breed them specifically for war. An example of this, although it was futuristic movie, is the cloned stormtroopers in the Star Wars series. These are just a few reasons why I will always be against human reproductive cloning as there is just too much possibility for abuse by major powers in this world.
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I agree. I believe that if this were to become legal, we would cross a dangerous threshold. The rich would have access to private armies and limitless labor all while exploiting those who could not think for themselves
ReplyDeleteDQ:
ReplyDeleteIf reproductive cloning became a thing, would the products be considered equally human as normally created people?
Would using human clones for the specific use of an organ transplant source be unethical? I watched a movie on that once and it's always intrigued me.
Regarding businesses with a potential optimized workforce, would a massive increase in efficiency really be a bad thing?
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ReplyDeleteIn one of my earlier classes we were discussing the commodities that arise from capitalism and how we regularly like to think that human life is “priceless” but insurance will quickly let you know what your life is worth...anyhow, I never thought about corporations cloning people for resources and it’s extremely scary to think about!
ReplyDeleteIn comment to Kevin's first two questions:
ReplyDeleteIn terms of equality, I can't envision a world where genetically reproduced individuals would be viewed equally. We would advocate for equality, but in a society where we can't view ourselves equally how could we expect to grant equality to something we've intentionally engineered. As beings that we would, in this case "farm" for organs and tissue, I think this illustrates the lack of equality considering clones wouldn't be viewed any different from cattle and domesticated animals.
I have some concerns. The phrase "reproductive cloning" is being thrown in as a catch all term for the mainstream idea of creating a breed of working class. I agree, this is bad, any sentient creature should have the ability to live productive lives. The problem comes with the examples. As we know it, you cannot "breed" a mindset. You can try and use the genome to explain half of the picture of human behavior. But that is it, half of the problem is unexplored. Mainstream media throws about the nature versus nurture argument all the time, when in reality, how a developing child is treated can be just as important. We have scientific proof of it, including a new phrase that is rarely heard, epigenetics. It is majorly thought that it is not our genes but the expression of our genes that control things like metabolism. These expressions change over time and according to the environment. Not given the choice? Yes, that is a problem, but one that we already have without the effort of creating a law about genetic modification. Human trafficking is a problem, currently, human genetic modification is illegal and a purely hypothetical problem. I did not like the examples put together in the book, I felt like there was a clearer answer in media already. SPOILERS FOR A 2009 MOVIE.
ReplyDeleteMoon was about this very same premise without the...how do I say this...the bias of using children. Same situation, more nuanced. Long story short, abuse of people is still about power, and putting restrictions on something we already cannot do to people sets us up for a situation where someone could forget how identical twins work.