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Human Cloning: Scientific, Ethical, Legal and Religious Aspects

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modified on 2019-07-25, 08:06
The prospect of creating children through somatic cell nuclear transfer has elicited widespread concern, much of it in the form of fears about harms to the children who may be born as a result. There are concerns about possible physical harms from the manipulations of ova, nuclei, and embryos, which are parts of the technology, and about possible psychological harms, such as a diminished sense of individuality and personal autonomy. There are ethical concerns as well about a degradation of the quality of parenting and family life if parents are tempted to seek excessive control over their children's characteristics, to value children according to how well they meet overly detailed parental expectations, and to undermine the acceptance and openness that typify loving families. Virtually all people agree that the current risks of physical harm to children associated with somatic cell nuclear transplantation cloning might justify a prohibition at this time on such experimentation[i]. In addition to physical harms, many worry about psychological harms associated with such cloning. One of the forms of psychological harm most frequently mentioned is the possible loss of a sense of uniqueness. Although the myth of genetic determinism is dispelled, but some doubts about cloning and identity remain that I am going to argue that somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning creates serious issues of identity and individuality especially in the Psychological identity and forces us to reconsider how we define ourselves because Cloned children each will be genetically virtually identical to a human being who has already lived and also the expectations for their lives may be shadowed by constant comparisons to the life of the “original.