Ethics of Human Cloning

Today biological science is rising on a wall of worry. No other science has advanced more dramatically during the past several decades or yielded so many palpable improvements in human welfare. Yet, none except nuclear physics has aroused greater apprehensions among the general public and leaders in such diverse fields as religion, the humanities, and government. In this engaging book, Leon R. Kass, the noted teacher, scientist, humanist, and chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, and James Q. Wilson, the preeminent political scientist to whom four United States presidents have turned for advice on crime, drug abuse, education, and other crises in American life, explore the ethics of human cloning, reproductive technology, and the teleology of human sexuality. Although in their lively dialgoue both authors share a fundamental distrust of the notion of human cloning, they base their resistance on different views of the role of sexual reproduction and the role of the family. Professor Kass contends that in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproudction technologies that place the origin of human life in human hands have eroded the respect for the mystery of sexuality and human renewal. Professor Wilson, in contrast, asserts that whether a human life is created naturally or artificially is immaterial as long as the child is raised by loving parents in a two-parent family and is not harmed by the means of its conception. This accessible volume promises to inform the public policy debate over the permissible conduct of genetic research and the permissible uses of its discoveries.

This accessible volume promises to inform the public policy debate over the permissible conduct of genetic research and the permissible uses of its discoveries.

Publishers Weekly

Once merely a theme for science fiction writers, the possibility of cloning human beings now joins a growing list of concerns wherein technology outstrips modern culture's ability to describe the bounds of morality. In this nifty little two-part guide to the ethical debate, Kass (Toward a More Natural Science) and Wilson (On Character) articulate opposed notions. Kass believes that cloning humans is another step in the degradation of humanity. He asserts that it's a natural progression in the assault on the traditional structure of the family, espoused by feminists, reproductive rights enthusiasts, gay liberationists and other cultural sophisticates. For his part, Wilson addresses the issue from a more open-ended position. While he recognizes the philosophical and theological problems of cloning, he believes that it may be an answer to infertility and a substitute for adoption. Both authors thrust and parry deftly with polite wit and literate analogies, in a format that allows ample space to develop both wings of the argument. The second part of the book is allocated for rebuttal and conclusions. The lively intellectual power of both writers, who cite works as diverse as William Blake's poetry and The Boys from Brazil, helps to define the consequences in absorbing terms. The book explores the moral terrain of the near future, and questions whether we are journeying to a braver or more craven new world.

Leon R. Kass is chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College of University of Chicago, and the Hertog Fellow at AEI. He is the author of Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs (Free Press, 1985) and The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature (Free Press, 1994). James Q. Wilson is the James A. Collins Professor of Mangaement and Public Policy Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Crime and Human Nature (with Richard J. Herrnstein) (Simon & Schuster, 1985), Thinking about Crime (Vintage Books, 1977), On Character (AEI Press, 1991, 1995), The Moral Sense (Free Press, 1993) and Moral Judgment (Basic Books, 1997).

Leon R. Kass is chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College of University of Chicago, and the Hertog Fellow at AEI. He is the author of Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs (Free Press, 1985) and The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature (Free Press, 1994).

James Q. Wilson is the James A. Collins Professor of Mangaement and Public Policy Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Crime and Human Nature (with Richard J. Herrnstein) (Simon & Schuster, 1985), Thinking about Crime (Vintage Books, 1977), On Character (AEI Press, 1991, 1995), The Moral Sense (Free Press, 1993) and Moral Judgment (Basic Books, 1997).