Christian Ethical Issues with Cloning

We're discussing cloning. The word clone comes from a Greek word meaning twig. My primary concern is with embryonic cloning procedures, especially the ethics of human cloning. To review, there are basically three types of cloning procedures.

Cloning Laboratory Procedures (from The Ethics of Human Cloning)

• Molecular cloning - DNA fragments containing genes are copied and amplified in a host cell, usually a bacterium. This has led to the production of many important medicines. 
• Cellular cloning - a cell line identical to the original is grown in a culture. Useful in testing and sometimes the production of medicines, such as insulin and tPA. 
• Embryo cloning - three categories
• blastomere division - able to produce a new individual organism. Used in livestock breeding
• blastocyst division (twining) - a sexually formed embryo is split into two identical halves. 
• nuclear transplantation—from each blastomere or embryo into the cytoplasm of an egg whose genetic material has been removed (enucleated). This process is used both for the therapeutic cloning of pluripotent stem cells and the potential cloning of human beings. 

There are many legal and political issues surrounding cloning. I do not intend to discuss them. For instance, Federal Law states that any clinic using assisted reproduction techniques must be monitored. And there are regulations on the number of manipulations that may be made to eggs or embryos. My focus is upon the religious issues, specifically the ethical issues that arise from Biblical teachings. These considerations apply specifically to Christians and will be used by them as they make decisions in their callings as parents, teachers, citizens, lawyers, political leaders, medical practitioners and scientists.

Christian Ethical Issues

1. Obtaining pluripotent stem cells from human embryos - remains the biggest problem for us Christians who believe that human life begins with conception (see Human Life Begins With Conception). We recognize human life to be human life (Gen. 9:6; Psalm 139:15-16), regardless of the stage of development. This is why we strenuously object to any attempts to manipulate and destroy such life. 
2. Induced pluripotent stem cells research is an exciting new development. iPSCs, as they are called, are derived from adult somatic cells that, through genetic manipulation, have been reprogrammed to resemble embryonic pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells have the unique property of unlimited proliferation in the undifferentiated state while retaining the ability to differentiate into terminal cell types, including neurons, when cultured appropriately. iPSCs hold enormous potential for studying human development and disease, creating new systems to identify promising drugs, and generating customized replacement cells that can be used as therapies directly. And they circumvent the ethical issues arising from embryonic sources of pluripotent stem cells
3. We humans were designed by our Creator to be in a family (Gen. 2:18-25; 4:1; Eph. 3:14-21). We are not merely highly evolved animals to be manipulated and manufactured. We are created to be the result of the union of a loving father and mother, joined and blessed by our Creator. We were never created merely to be the union of a sperm and an egg or a nucleus implanted into an enucleated egg. We are created to be a part of a family. And our Creator intends for that family to be the protective and stable milieu into which children are born and in which they are nurtured, taught and brought to maturity.  
4. Some may in fact clone a human one day. As stated in my previous blog, the science is available. Should that happen, how will we deal with that life—that person? It is not a question of whether he/she has a soul, as the Schwarzenegger character asks in The 6th Day movie. Man does not have a soul. He is a soul. What distinguishes man from the other creatures that have life is the image and breath (neshamah -Hebrew) of God (Genesis 1:27; 2:7; 5:1; 9:6). He is the highest of God's creatures, created to be in fellowship with God and made to rule over all the rest of the living creatures. We can only assume that even under the inhumane practices of manipulating God's creation to our own ends and ignoring His plan for human life, He may bring forth human life. And so we must treat that human with the same dignity and love as any other human. He/she is not simply another Dolly the sheep! 

We who live together on this earth are called by our Creator to be fruitful and multiply. It is in our DNA. But as we do so, we must be very careful to join our LORD and Savior to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."