Bjoern Moeller wrote:
> Listening to Odyssey on NPR today (Wed 2/21), where
> the issue of human cloning was debated, something
> struck me.
>
> The scientists on the program (a professor in Cell and
> Molecular Biology from Northwestern and a professor in
> Social Thought from U of Chicago) agreed that it is
> probable that a human cloning will take place in the
> future, perhaps even in the near future (quote "in
> months"), and then they discussed the scientific,
> technological, economical, medical, and ethical
> implications of a human clone.
>
> I am not a biologist or chemist, so I am not able to
> really discuss these matters, but what struck me, and
> what was not even mentioned in the program, is the
> question 'What is a human being?' As a Christian I
> think that a human being is a body and a soul/spirit.
> If that is true, the further question is if a
> scientist can create a human being. Totally ignorant
> of how a human cloning is performed, is it really
> possible to make a human being in a lab? And if it is,
> then isn't Christian doctrine with respect to man
> simply false, and materialism is true?
If cloning falsified Christianity it would already have been falsified by those
who do in vitro fertilization. In fact, it would have been falsified by a man & woman
who have intercourse in order to have a baby. Human beings come into being through
biological processes with varying degrees of technological assistance. As Christians
we're to believe that God is active in those processes.
IMO it is important that there be general agreement (& not just among
Christians), before complete human cloning that the result of successful human cloning
will be treated as a fully human being "with all the rights and privileges pertaining
thereto." Everything possible should be done to head off ideas that clones can be mere
property, machinery, slaves, sources of spare parts, &c.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
>
>
> My questions presuppose that something immaterial
> can't come out of something material, and that the
> soul/spirit of a human being is immaterial.
>
> Perhaps I have just misunderstood what a human clone
> is?
>
> Bjorn Moller
> Philosophy Dept.
> Loyola University Chicago
>
> E-mail: dj_mic20@yahoo.com
>
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