FREE ESSAY ON AGAINST CLONING

AGAINST CLONING

Against Cloning
Genesis 11:1-9 records the sad story of the building of the tower of Babel. That project
stands out as the first chapter in a story that continues to this day, and includes many
similar kind of undertakings. As technology and ability increase so does man's ability to
do things that are ultimately not in his best interest. 
The first objection is that cloning is not wise. Wisdom is knowing the end of a matter
from the beginning. Proverbs 14:15 tells us The naive believes everything, But the
sensible man considers his steps. It is sensible or prudent to think carefully about the
path we are walking, and where it will lead us. Proverbs 22:3 reminds us A prudent man
foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished. We want to be
the kind of people who are actively looking out for evil before we are involved in it so
deeply that escaping it is hard and painful. In Luke 14:28ff Jesus urges this same kind
of thinking we He talks about counting costs. In that context He is urging us to count
the cost of serving Him, but the principle applies to all of life: we should count the
cost before we do something, before we embark on a project. 
We are at the place where wisdom says we need to stop for several reasons. First, no one
really knows how it worked, if it will work again, or exactly why it worked. For certain,
we know what they did, we know the procedure. But Roslin scientists have said the cloning
was the result of much hit-and-miss experimentation and needs to be refined through
further research. Second, no one knows if the procedure is safe.
To top it all off, we have no idea where this will lead. The possibilities and problems
that could come from human cloning have not been thoroughly mapped out by any means.
Interestingly, very little is said about potential good this could bring. No one is
saying If we can clone humans we can cure cancer. Science doesn't seem to be asking
Should we only Can we? Yet everyone admits the potential for evil is infinitely
greaterthan any good that might come of it. Think of some of the complications that may
arise. What will we do with bad copies -- malformed babies who are the results of failed
cloning experiments? The mind reels with the possibilities for sin and iniquity that
human cloning presents. 
Cloning is just not wise. The folks at Babel ought to have asked Should we? before asking
Can we? Are we wise enough to do better than they? The truth is that cloning is an
attempt to control and choose who will be born. It is highly doubtful that we have the
wisdom, moral sense, or moral fiber necessary to make good choices in that area. We lack
the wisdom to develop cloning properly, use it, or understand it. Why should we continue
down such a path? How wise is it to board a train going where we don't know, and
traveling on untested tracks? 
The second objection to human cloning is that it can be outright sinful. This is true for
several reasons. First, cloning results in abortions. Cloning is a complicated procedure
that often does not work, so many, many cloned embryos must be made. In the Dolly
experiment there were 277 cell fusions, resulting in 29 that began to grow and were
implanted, 13 sheep became pregnant, but finally only 1 lamb. As one ethicist said, It
took 277 trials and errors to produce Dolly the sheep, creating a cellular body count
that would look like sheer carnage if the cells were human. While toying with (and
destroying) sheep embryos is not troubling to anyone what if that were done with human
embryos? This is not an article on abortion, but we must advance the principle here that
life begins at conception (see Psalm 139:13-16; Jer. 1:5). It is not right for scientists
to murder hundreds of lives (that is what embryos are) in their scientific experiments!
The means is not ethical. 
Further, cloning could be used to have a child outside of the family unit. God's order
for the family is clearly set forth in Ephesians 6:1-4. Children need parents, both a mom
and a dad. If you are not in a marriage where that home can be provided then the hard
truth is God doesn't want you to have kids. But who is it that is most thrilled with
cloning? The homosexual community. Technology is trying to find yet another way to have
children outside of the God-given pattern and plan. On the front page of a New York Times
article a cell biologist from Washington University in St. Louis named Ursula Good enough
quipped that with cloning there'd be no need for men. A single woman might choose to
clone herself rather than involve a man in any way. Are we constructing a technology to
circumvent God's moral and natural laws? God forbid that we should design such technology
in order to give homosexual couples an opportunity to produce a family, or even to allow
the unmarried to reproduce outside of marriage. 
Perhaps worst of all, cloning will inevitably result in exploited children. When the
experts are pressed to explain what cloning could be used for what do they talk about?
How about producing a child as spare parts for your-self or for another child that is
sick? What if your three-year old has kidney disease, ultimately will have to be on
dialysis? No problem. We'll clone that kid, so that a new child will be an exact genetic
match, then take one of those kidneys in 3-5 years. That would work as well for bone
marrow transplants, and many other diseases. Yet we must ask if that is an appropriate
reason to bring a child into this world? Yes, spare parts children are brought into this
world (occasionally) already. But if doctors could guarantee a genetic match this will
increase the practice dramatically. When we think about it one wonders how long it would
be until someone clones a child for the clone's heart? The child would be born, put on
super growth stimulants, never cared for or loved, until he or she was big enough for the
heart to be harvested. What a thought -- we will just take what we want and leave the
rest to die because we didn't want you anyway. We just needed a part! 
Psalms 127:3-5 says Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb
is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them . . . . Children are a gift from the
Lord, not something to be exploited for our or another's benefit! 
CONCLUSION
The Bible does guide us, doesn't it? Wisdom dictates that we stop cloning experimentation
before the genie gets further out of the bottle, or more accurately, before Pandora's box
is open any wider. Scripture clearly shows us that the means to cloning is sinful, and
will surely lead to more sin (exploited kids). It is very difficult to look at any of
this and say Yes, God is blessing this, this will help humanity, let's go full speed
ahead. Human cloning looks more and more like our own Tower of Babel. Let's be content to
know that God made us, and that we did not make ourselves (Psalm 100:3). May we use our
minds and technology to draw closer to him rather than building monuments to human pride
that will only harm and hurt us all.