The debate on Cloning all began in 1997 with the birth announcement of a sheep named Dolly. Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an individual cell. Since then, the debate over human cloning has dominated the bioethics community and almost all industrialized nations have banned human cloning in one form or another. The European parliament pushed through a resolution on cloning. The preamble states:The cloning of human beings… cannot under any circumstances be justified by society, because it is a serious violation of fundamental human rights and is contrary to the principle of equality of human beings as it promotes a eugenic and racist selection of the human race, it offends against human dignity and it requires experimentation on humans… Each individual has a right to his or her own genetic identity and that human cloning is and must continue to be prohibited (Harris, 360). Dr. Leon Eisenberg defines cloning as “the aggregate of the asexually produced progeny of an individual organism” (Eisenberg, 471). Human cloning is dangerous to society two for very important reasons. It has serious moral implications. Furthermore, the cloning of human beings could have serious psychological and ramifications toward clones and their progenitors.The actions and conclusions of leading experts in the field of bioethics have proven it as a field of very little substance. While most fields related to ethics have a very solid foundation bioethics stems from the current views and opinions of society. There is only one absolute in bioethics. The welfare of the patient is paramount to all other aspects of treatment. However, this is a statement that can be molded and manipulated to fit the desires of patients, doctors, and scientists in the arena of genetics and cloning. Soon after the announcement of Dolly’s birth President Clinton formed The National Bioethics Commission. The goal of this commission wa...
