Ethics, Cloning, and saving lives according to Jack Nicholson

[KillerMuffin]

Well, in "A Few Good Men," Jack Nicholson's character, Colonel what'sisface, justified having a marine in his command beaten to death by the phrase "saves lives." Bad marines get people killed, he said.

Anyway. An American company, Advanced Cell Technology, Incl, just cloned a human embryo for the purpose of harvesting stem cells for research and perhaps saving lives or improving the quality of life for others in need of this kind of therapy. You can see the article over a Reuters for at least a few hours.

This leads to some questions.

The embryo is the beginning of human life. It's the stage just past conception. Is it a human being? Pro-lifers rationalize that it is a human because, well, it's going to have arms, legs, and hopefully some intelligence in nine months. Pro-choicers rationalize that it isn't human because it can't live on its own without incubation from its host, the mother. Following the pro-lifers rational, it's wrong to jack off because you're killing sperm which is human life. Following the pro-choicers rational, its okay to kill a baby it can't live without care from its hosts, theoretically the mother and father. Yes, they're both extreme, we're not arguing about that right now. This is about ethics, so go start a new thread. So, is an embryo a human being?

If these cells are harvested from an embryo, are we destroying the potential of another human being?

If we clone embryos for a while and we get really good at it, why not let the embryo grow into a baby? Some people are childless and desperately want a child. You can find them advertising in the classifieds everywhere. Why not allow them to clone themselves and create a baby?

Why is cloning a human being right or wrong?

 

[felixdakat]

i snuck a retard into the sperm bank

well i think that abortion is wrong for me.... if i were to impregnate some one, i would want to keep the baby... i realize that this view isn't everybodys and that's ok with me. however, the thought of humans cloning embrios of humans isn't that much of a shock to me. and as to wether it's right or wrong, i suppose it doesn't really matter since what it really boils down to is what happens to us when we die. if there is a god, and he see's that embrio as human life, i'm sure he'll understand that it's done no wrong, and it's on to bigger and better things for it. if there is no god, then all we're really doing is exceleratin the nitrus cycle

 

[Todd]

Following the pro-lifers rational, it's wrong to jack off because you're killing sperm which is human life

Can you scan the page of the prolifer pamphlet you got this off of. Everyone knows I am a pro-lifer. I have a good 3 feet of bookshelf dedicated to pro-lifer booklets, pamphlets and books and never once on , or in any of them have I ever read that its wrong to jack off.

So if you scan that page aliong with the publishers info and date so I can get a copy of it I would be greatful, thank you.

 

[asphaltangel]

Well I'm gonna jump up on my soap box for a second or two and voice My and only My opinion!

I am a Dr. I took an oath to help preservr life. But I do not personally think it is right for any human being to try to influence another what to do with their own body. I think if we ever get to the point where we blindly become accepting to mandates by others on what our rights as living breathing beings is to do with our own body's then we might as well all comite global genicide!

I have a personal disgust for people who stand outside a planed parenthood clinic and threaten a woman for seaking options for a situation wich she may not be physically or emotionally capable of seeing to the long term end.

I think if pro life people want the right to do that wich under the constitution they do. Then they should take in all the children they are so adament on saving from what ever they think there GOD might reign down on that poor child.


well enough of my ranting I just think everyone should be able to have all the options in life they are entiteled to as human beings.On the subject of cloning and weather an embryo is a person. I feel the only time we will ever have the true answer to that question is when we are no longer in this world when all the questions become clear to us.

AA

Again this is just MY opinion I may be wrong.

 

[MunchinMark]

Cloning is expensive, low yield and not neccessarily practical.
There are other ways to produce stem cell cultures, which is what the biochemists want. They believe that these undifferentiated cells can be of great use to medicine.

They might not be, stem cell research is in its own infancy. Also the human body has other sources of stem cells. The lower levels of your skin, for example.

Cells from biopsies have already been used (sometimes with dubious legality) for pharmaceutical research, so there would be less moral difficulty in getting cells from this source.

Reproductive cloning effectively produces a twin of the cloned organism. Given that this process is expensive and difficult, I can't see much point to doing this.

And for the childless, what about adoption? It is a wonderful and charitable choice. If you would rather clone yourself so that you are your own twin's father or mother, then you are selfish and as fucked up as your child will become when they find out who they really are.

And I mean that. What a waste of human effort.

 

[YogiBare]

Thank you, asphaltangel!

Let's hear more from you!!!

 

[Emeraldtryst]

I believe that this type on "on the edge" research should be hotly pursued. I don't believe that just because an ambryo has the potential for life that it should be considered human.

To the argument that you'd be making the same exact person: You are more wrong than you know. Scientists that were studying brain developement in twins found that just being on opposite sides of the womb caused billions of neural pathways to be wired differently. There is no chance for the same exact conditions to be present for 2 different terms.

 

[Mellon Collie]

If we clone embryos for a while and we get really good at it, why not let the embryo grow into a baby? Some people are childless and desperately want a child. You can find them advertising in the classifieds everywhere. Why not allow them to clone themselves and create a baby?

I think that is such an incredibly narrow-minded position for a person to have. I mean cloning for childless parents when thousands if not millions of children in the US alone have no families or the ones they're with abuse them physically, sexually and mentally? That's insane. People really need to reevaluate their priorities and what they consider to be important.

 

[MunchinMark]

I didn't say that a clone is exactly the same as the cloned. What I said was that they would be the twin of one of their parents.

Can you imagine how that one would go? Your about fifteen and your dad/mum sits you down and tells you how you really came to be. How terrible.