In the News - Cloning

Australia's decision to issue the license for cloning embryos to produce stem cells, like most debates over this topic, hinges on a definition of what you're creating when you alow cells to duplicate. In other words, when do cells become a life we would think of as being ended when they are harvested for research. The article says scientists are being allowed to let cells reproduce to the blastocyst stage, but not to a viable fetus. Different groups will define life as starting at different times. Terms such as embryo are distinct from words such as embryonic cells, which are used by different groups to emphasize its proximity to or distance from what we would think of as a human being.

For some, life begins at conception. While easy to claim, this turns every fertilized egg that doesn't implant properly into the uterus as the death of a human being. While I don't think we want to disregard such lost opportunities, it is also a difficult rule to use in enforcing any type of law that would protect the rights of such a group of cells. It's not obvious to the woman when implantation has occurred, so its hard to say when such rights begin.

That scientists are trying to produce these types of cells while preventing them from entering stages where theywould feel it unethical to use these cells shows that there is some attempt to work within the moral codes of multiple groups. It's not a slash and burn policy where the scientists are given free reign to do what they want.