Therapeutic Cloning: From Consequences to Contradiction

The British Parliament legalized therapeutic cloning in December 2000 despite opposition from the European Union. The watershed event in Parliament's move was the active and unprecedented government support for the generation and destruction of human embryonic life merely as a means of medical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of medicine and philosophy 2002-06, Vol.27 (3), p.297-317
Main Author: Coors, Marilyn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioethics
Biotechnology - standards
categorical imperative
Cloning, Organism - legislation & jurisprudence
Cloning, Organism - standards
Embryo, Mammalian - cytology
Ethical Theory
Ethics, Medical
Genetic Therapy - standards
human embryo
Humans
maxim
Moral Obligations
Philosophy, Medical
Stem Cells
United Kingdom
utilitarian
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Summary:The British Parliament legalized therapeutic cloning in December 2000 despite opposition from the European Union. The watershed event in Parliament's move was the active and unprecedented government support for the generation and destruction of human embryonic life merely as a means of medical advancement. This article contends that the utilitarian analysis of this procedure is necessary to identify the real world risks of therapeutic cloning but insufficient to identify the breach of defensible ethical limits that this procedure represents. A value-oriented approach to Kantian ethics demonstrates that the utilitarian endorsement of therapeutic cloning entails a contradiction of the necessity of human vulnerability and a faulty valuation of the human embryo. The concern is that a narrow utilitarian focus ultimately commodifies human embryonic life and preferences outcomes as the sole determinant of moral value.
ISSN:0360-5310
1744-5019
DOI:10.1076/jmep.27.3.297.2985