Liliana Schirripa January 11, 2001

Dr. Christian Perring ASC128, write-up

Cloning and Religious Responses

According to Religious Tolerance.org, cloning is the production of one or more individual plants or animals that are genetically identical to another plant or animal. There are two different procedures when we discuss cloning and they are the following: Embryo cloning and adult DNA cloning.

Embryo cloning is when we are removing one or more cells from one embryo and aid it to develop into a separate embryo with the same DNA as the original embryo. This procedure has been performed on many different classes of animals since the late 1980’s and in mice experiments since the late 1970’s. However, research of cloning human embryos has been restricted in the United States and in some other countries as well. Going back to the Reagan and Bush presidencies, human embryo cloning was banned. It was being done for years without making it public. The first publicly reported human cloning was done by Robert J. Stillman and his team at the George Washington Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Adult DNA cloning involves moving the DNA from an embryo and replacing it with the DNA from another person. Then, the Embryo is allowed to develop into a new human with the same DNA as the other person has. This can occur due to the fact that every cell in our body (with the exception of the sperm and egg) holds the genetic material in it to devise an exact clone of the original body. An example of this would be Dolly the sheep. The cell was taken from a mammary tissue of a six year old seep while the DNA was in a dormant state. It was fused with a sheep ovum. According to www.genesage.com, there were 277 attempts at cell fusion, only 29 divided, 13 became pregnant but only 1 lamb was born and that was Dolly. Scientists wondered if Dolly’s life expectancy would be reduced because she was conceived from a six-year-old cell.

Cloning does come with its issues. A question of morality is one. Many argue the fact that cloning is ethical because it can have a positive effect with the following: it saves lives, passing of genetic disorders, cancer, women who want twins, and helping animals that are at risk for extinction. Nevertheless, some religious leaders, and according to the Bible (Genesis 1:26-28) God made us in His own image, and he is the one that gives life and takes it. The interview I had with local Pentecostal Rev. A. Pallela, gave me a better understanding of how to look at this controversial question. He basically told me that he was against cloning humans, because he follows the Bible, but cloning organs he said, “that every denomination, and religion has a different view on this. I feel that God gave these doctors the intelligence to do this to save lives, but all the rest scares me.” And the truth of it is that I would be terrified if there were clones of myself or my friends as I addressed in my presentation, it’s just not natural.

If we were to go against God or nature and clone humans, the moral questions would be that clones may have a shorter life span (such as Dolly), some feel they will have no souls, sexual orientation will become an issue because some may choose to abort the zygote because the sex is not the one desired by the parents, genetic diversity is an issue, and in my research I came across a comment suggesting that there may not be a need for males because, such as Dolly, she was conceived from an ewe’s egg and a cell from another ewe, no sperm was involved. However, I feel this is unlikely. And one final question is a guarantee. There is no guarantee that the first cloned human will be normal they may suffer from a disorder that is not detectable by ultrasound and may be born disabled or with terrible mutations.

This issue indeed has caused a great deal of controversy. In 1997 President Bill Clinton ordered a ban on federal funding of human cloning in the United States. However, research does continue in other countries.

“Every person has the right to two biological parents.”

-Nicholas Coote, assistant secretary to Roman

Catholic Bishop.

“This is on a par with rape, child abuse, and murder”

-Jeremy Rifkin, president of Economic trend in D.C., he leads a coalition of 300 religious organizations

Feedback and Reaction

I feel the feedback I received from the class was mostly on key. The negative comments I received were that I seemed lost at times, didn’t obtain enough information on other area in religion (which they wrote was understandable for the amount of time I had to prepare), not enough well chosen questions posed to the class to generate discussion, and the area I received the least amount of points were the “um” and “like”, I can most definitely agree on that. However, although I agree with the feedback listed above, I would say about ten of the evaluations came back graded in the 70’s, which I felt was not how my performance was, some I do feel were a little too hard.

A majority of the positive feedback was that they liked the overhead, the handouts had both ethical views on it, as well as places to research. The survey hand out and visual on the board were also appreciated. The class also responded well to the interview I had with the Reverend, and seemed quite impressed.

I myself wanted to receive an A, just for going first in a short amount of time, however, I do understand that my performance was not an A, that I could of engaged the class with better questions, and held back on the “um’s”.

Overall, I actually enjoyed learning about this topic, and now have my entire family reading my books on cloning. I found that even after class the class still asked me questions and seemed quite interested.

References

Books

Cole-Turner, Ronald. Human Cloning: Religious Responses. Louisville, Kentucky: West Minster John Knox Press, 1997

Howard, Ted, and Jeremy Rifkin. Who Should Play God? New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co. Inc.,1977

Pence, Gregory E. Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning? Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998.

Websites

Kramer, Susan. Cloning. 2000. Online. 4 Jan. 2001. Available: http://susankramer.com/Cloning.html

Misterpoll, Cloning. 2000. Online. 9 Jan. 2001. Available: http://www.misterpoll.com

Robinson, Bruce. Human Cloning: Ethical Aspects. 1997. Online. 4 Jan. 2001. Available: http://www.religioustolerance.org

Wertz, Dorothy. GeneLetter: 21 Arguments Against Human Cloning, and Their Responses. 1998. Online. 8 Jan. 2001. Available: http://www.genesage.com.