THE PERCEPTIONS OF CLONING HUMAN BEINGS IN OUR SOCIETY

Or does nature vs . nurture determine whether cloning is ethically correct

The next argument against cloning is the desire for what has been termed , designer babies . Individuals might prefer clones of supermodels , geniuses or athletes rather than the average person . This practice , however , is not unique , nor would it originate with cloning For example , in March of 1999 , an advertisement was placed in the student newss of Harvard , Princeton , Stanford , the University of Pennsylvania , and Yale

Help our dream come true . A loving , caring couple seeking egg donor Candidates should

be intelligent , athletic , blonde , at least 5 '10 , have a 1400 SAT score , and possess no major family medical issues 50 ,000 (Cohen , 2003 ,

. 35

Keep in mind that this ad is not unique . Many couples who seek donor eggs (and have the budget to make demands ) are very specific in what they 're looking for . This loving , caring couple ' is primarily seeking donor eggs from a woman who possesses all of the superficial qualities they would like to have in a child . The desire for a healthy child is secondary and comes at the end of the ad . One cannot say that the prevention of human cloning would also prevent designer babies

Finally , the third most popular argument is that cloning would prevent diversity among the species . In the book , The Ethics of Human Cloning , Leon R . Kass and James Q . Wilson remind us of the principle of evolution : species make minor changes over time in to adapt to the environment . Clones , of course , would be copies of people already in existence and would be unable to make those slight changes . Producing a regular , large amount of clones might set back evolution altogether much like resetting a video game while it is already in play - it can only...