Cloning is a method of exactly duplicating a living thing. The controversy is novel given the relatively recent development of the concept and its implementing techniques. It appears that no credible evidence exists that a human being has been cloned yet. It is certain, however, that animals have been. Are we next?
The concept of cloning was first popularized some years ago in the movie "Boys from Brazil" which starred Gregory Peck. Peck played the infamous Doctor Josef Mengele - the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele, of course, never conceived of cloning - an unimaginable idea during the 1940's. He was, however, obsessed with identical twins which is certainly akin to exact genetic duplication. Dr. Mengele, like his fellow SS physicians, was completely committed to the idea of racial improvement. It was, in fact, part and parcel of Nazi eugenics to create a master race. The ultimate objective was the German "Herrenvolk," who would dominate Europe and eventually the entire world.
Cloning, of course, is somewhat distinct from the broader concept of genetic engineering designed to improve the human race or at least a select segment. In the movie 'Boys from Brazil,' the Nazi doctor was genetically duplicating his idol, Adolf Hitler, through introducing a fertilized egg into the wombs of various "fit" women. The end result of these experiments would produce numerous Adolf Hitlers with the hope and expectation that at least one of them would resurrect the dream of a pan Germanic race that would rule the world.
Human clones are now certainly a very real possibility from a purely technological point of view. What possibilities that opens! Could we clone ourselves, for example, and then harvest organs from our own clone to be used in the event our own organs failed? Of course, that would be tough luck for the clone. He would die and we would live. The clone, under this view, becomes our ultimate slave. Our own cells could eventually be used to clone ourselves in perpetuity - generation after generation forever! An entire race could be created as genetic duplicates of the "fittest" among us, achieving in effect, what Nazi medicine could only dream of - a master race!
A clone who is "created" by technological means is what? Is the clone a "person" within the meaning of the law entitled to legal status and protection? Is the clone a "human being" made in the image and likeness of God? On June 12th 2008, a proposed Colorado state constitutional amendment was certified to appear on the November ballot. It would define a fertilized human egg as a "person" with all the implications that such would imply. The purely moral issue can be framed in different ways:
1. Is the biblical commandment "Increase and multiply" Genesis 1: 28 to be fulfilled only through traditional coitus or may we also propagate by other means? i.e. in vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, cloning, etc.
2. Is duplicating a human being through cloning, nothing more than what nature itself does in producing identical twins?
3. What is the proper limit to genetic engineering designed to improve the race?
I can not begin to answer all these questions. On June 13th 2008, the Roman Catholic Bishops released a statement regarding embryonic stem cell research and touched upon the subject of cloning in the process. The Bishops contended that cloning to produce human embryos will "inevitably facilitate attempts to produce live-born cloned children." Human beings will become "commodities" and procreation will be reduced "to a mere manufacturing process." Might they be right?
The one thing that I personally can say with conviction is this: to impregnate, to fertilize, or to clone - by whatever means -
never "creates" anything i.e. make something from nothing. God alone has that power! The question is what we can and should do to propagate or genetically improve ourselves. Is the only proper and moral way of propagating ourselves, for example, limited to sexual intercourse between one man and one women joined in holy matrimony which, in turn, results in offspring born and reared in a loving and stable environment?
My own answer to that last question is yes, but!
Yes, the traditional family is the best!
But, we live in an imperfect and flawed world. Might we then morally allow science to do what it reasonably can to assist in propagating and improving ourselves? I think so. Of course, this again begs the question - what is reasonable, balanced and morally correct? I am afraid, once again, I just don't know all the answers. Does anyone?
As in so many areas of the Christian life, we must ultimately listen to our consciences, be guided by our clergy, and always pray to the God that created all of us for help to get it right!
The Morality of Cloning 
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