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Human Cloning Debate When Frankenstein Was Adapted Essay

Human Cloning Debate When Frankenstein was adapted for stage in 1823 the production's title was Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein. A Victorian audience was concerned with the theme of a man's ambition to replace God by creating a new species. Equal emphasis was placed on this aspect of the novel in the 1831 introduction of Frankenstein, "It is Mary Shelly's critique of where such highly abstracted creative powers can lead when put in a 'realizing' scientific context and then driven along by 'lofty ambition' and 'high destiny' (Shelley, 2004, 204) that we see in the pages of Frankenstein" The novel was controversial in that it went against the traditional religious ideas of the time; Victorian morality held that God was the Almighty Creator. However, modern readers, with less restricted moral boundaries to those of the Victorians, likely see Victor's main crime within the novel more the perverse way in which the creation is carried out and more importantly Victor's failure to nurture the offspring; his crime is against the traditional framework of the family (Feldman and Scott-Kilvert, 1987).

Position Statement- At the very essence of the Frankenstein myth is the idea that humans have the technology and wisdom to create or duplicate life. This idea, cloning, is neither new, nor mysterious -- it is simply the biological process of producing replicas of organisms through...

In the United States, consumption of meat and other products derived from cloning was approved in December of 2006, with no special labeling required. However, although there are two types of human cloning typically discussed: therapeutic or using adult cells for use in medicine, and reproductive, involving cloning human beings. In the United States, House Bill 4808 was introduced in March, 2010, banning federal funding from human cloning. That bill has yet to be passed, and the issues remain quite controversial (HR4808, 2010).
Questions

1. What sort of boundaries of parenthood and social responsibility are challenged by cloning? At the heart of the debate on cloning there are two completely different and divergent issues: philosophical/social and biological. Parenthood may be defined as both -- a conceived child by sexual congress has parents. Socially, however, biology does not make parents. Witness adopted children who never know their parents, or the very common issue of homes in which children are raised by non-biological parents because of divorce or death. Parenting issues go back to the nature vs. nurture issue, and a cloned human would likely have certain genetic predispositions based on the biological donor (traits) that would be mitigated somewhat based on the style of parenting, locale, relationships, etc. As far…

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2. Will cloning lead to designer babies who are denied an open future? Certainly, there has been a great deal of speculation regarding the issue of "designer babies." If one can genetically opt out of obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc., then why not opt for clones that are of a "type" desired by parents (eye color, facial shape, etc.)? Is this a designer baby? In a sense, this is part of the entire eugenics debate, or the practice of improving the human species by discouraging reproduction from those with perceived undesirable traits. The moral issue is who decides what traits are most desirable? The temptation, assuredly, would be to opt for greater strength and intelligence, and as some science fiction authors have prophesized, a society of blond-haired, blue eyed "perfect" Aryan babies who grow to be adults and perpetuate this "ideal." However, in the real world, while the temptation might be there, it is far more likely that at first negatives (disease, decay, etc.) would be focused upon. As far as denying the child an open future; children now must typically deal with the genetics they are given, they have both an open and closed future. Some may be gifted in music, others in math; some may be savants, others lacking cognitive skills, but excelling in other areas (Fuller, 2009).

3. Does a human clone have the same rights and legal protections as a human being? This is both an ethical and political question since the framers of the Constitution (at least of the United States) did not have to worry about the issue at the time of writing. In essence, though, a cloned human is still a human based on the biological definition of humanity. Therefore, the individual's status could be nothing more than human since the clone is certainly not anything else, nor did it arise from anything else (e.g. As in an artificial intelligence machine, robot, etc.). (McGee, 2011).

4. Is it ethical to create an embryo solely for research? This question has larger implications about ethics of research. Is it ethical to destroy thousands of animals in the pursuit of research to heal humans? Certainly, by the definition of the individual, if the clone is a fully sentient being, with cognition and self-awareness, then it is no more ethical to create an embryo for research than it is to experiment on other human
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