"Know that the Lord is good. He made us and we are his – his people, the sheep of his flock."
So began the Office of Readings the day I sat down to write this
article. This verse seemed ironically fitting to reflect upon in
considering human cloning.
At last year's U.N. Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, the
"Contribution of the Holy See" closed with the disturbing specter of the
"risk of a new form of racism," one presented most compellingly by the
prospect of human cloning. The Contribution warned that techniques of
"artificial procreation, the use of 'superfluous embryos,' [and]
so-called therapeutic cloning ... could lead to the creation of a
'subcategory of human beings,' destined basically for the convenience of
certain others." This, they argue, would be "a new and terrible form of
slavery. Regrettably, it cannot be denied that the temptation of
eugenics is still latent, especially if powerful commercial interests
exploit it."
This is strong language—racism, slavery, eugenics. Is the Holy See being
alarmist? Is this language designed to condemn human cloning through
guilt by association? Or is this a prophetic warning based on the very
public actions, rhetoric, and pretensions of those within the scientific
and biotechnology community?
Cloning, SCNT, and the Legislative Moment
Cloning is now often referred to as "somatic cell nuclear transfer,"
abbreviated "SCNT." To clone, researchers must obtain an oocyte (a
woman's reproductive cell) and remove the nucleus (which contains most
of the genes, and directions for function). Imagine taking a chicken egg
and somehow, without destroying the egg, removing all of the yolk,
leaving only the egg white within the shell. Then, a cell (say, a skin
cell) is taken from the body of a different adult. Since it comes from
the body it's referred to as a "somatic" cell. The nucleus of this skin
cell is removed and injected or "transferred" into the enucleated
oocyte. This is like injecting it into the de-yolked chicken egg, only
on a much, much smaller scale. Stimulated with an electrical charge, the
combined materials from the two different cells fuse. The oocyte
realizes that it now has a full complement of DNA (instead of the half
that it has on its own) and it begins to act as if it's been fertilized.
It begins to divide and grow as an embryo. At this point, two things
might happen. The embryo could be implanted into a woman's uterus and
brought to term. Or it could be used for research. Either way, one has
cloned a human.
Currently three pieces of legislation that will determine what, if any,
of the above is legal, are competing for votes in the U.S. Senate. One
bill calls for a comprehensive ban on human cloning. Should the Senate
pass it, cloning human embryos (for any reason) would become illegal in
the U.S. In classic ethical terms, proponents of this bill hold that no
end for which cloning might be used would justify this means of
achieving that end.
Others have introduced alternative legislation that tries to distinguish
between the purposes to which cloning is put. This legislation would
permit scientists to use SCNT to create human clones in their labs, to
use them for research and as a source of stem cells. This application of
cloning is referred to as "research" cloning or "therapeutic" cloning.
But it would ban implanting such an embryo in a womb (or carrying the
embryo to term), to prevent what some call "reproductive" cloning.
How could cloning be "therapeutic" (since it certainly isn't therapeutic
for the clone)? Advocates claim that stem cells derived from embryos
"left over" after in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures will not be as
helpful as some claim, because of the problem of tissue rejection.
Therefore, if we are to realize the promise of human embryonic stem cell
research (ESCR) for the millions of people who suffer from Parkinson's,
diabetes, ALS, spinal cord injury, and so on, patients will need
embryos that match their own individual tissues. In other words, to
create a therapy for a patient, the patient will first need to be
cloned.
Racism and Slavery
It is generally considered bad form to invoke in ethical argument the
historic specters of slavery or the Nazis. But an increasing number of
critics, both secular and religious, have recognized a dangerous
connection between human cloning and these historic forms of injustice.
Racism and similar forms of discrimination entail the belief that
particular groups of human beings are excluded from the political and
moral community on the basis of perceived differences. Physical and
other differences between humans are used as markers for exclusion.
Philosophical and ideological concepts are often overlaid onto these
differences to justify the resulting exclusion and exploitation.
Those who oppose racism and discrimination (whether based on race,
gender, disability, class, etc.) are united in saying that the morally
relevant criterion is our shared humanity. As the founding documents of
the U.S. declare, "All humans [to correct for their exclusive language]
are created equal." All humans, in other words, are of equal,
incalculable, moral worth. The acknowledgement of human equality and
dignity stands against utilitarian calculations of the value and worth
of an individual. To create a hierarchy of value among humans based on
physical differences or abilities, opponents of racism maintain, is
morally corrupt.
Or so we declare. As we know, however, our actions and lives often belie
our rhetoric. Racism is deeply entrenched not only in the U.S. but
globally. The dignity and equality of human beings is an ideal – a claim
we believe to be true and a practice we strive to make real. For
Catholics and others committed to consistency in their ethics, any
systematic assault against innocent human life further devalues all
human life.
The current rhetoric surrounding ESCR and human cloning sadly fits the
classic understanding of racism. Some philosophers have even attempted
to claim that human embryos ought not to be understood as either human
or alive. This intentional distortion of language and common sense is as
transparent as it is disturbing. It is the ultimate dehumanization and
discrimination, a tactic used primarily to justify violence (think of
how we dehumanize the enemy in times of hatred and war).
Most advocates of ESCR and cloning, however, do not go quite that far.
The National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), in its 1999 report Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research,
noted a broad agreement that "human embryos deserve respect as a form
of human life." What they give here with one hand, however, they take
away with the other. After acknowledging that embryos are indeed human
life, they go on to recommend that "leftover" embryos can be destroyed
for research or in service to others. They hold open the possibility of
creating embryos solely for research or via cloning in the future. In
effect, NBAC not only sanctions the systematic destruction of human life
but defines a class of human beings it is morally acceptable to use for
our own purposes. Embryos are not the moral equivalent, NBAC agrees, of
full-fledged persons. They do not have the same value or worth because
they lack certain characteristics (rationality, self-consciousness,
autonomy) or, as some argue, because they look different from us. They
are not, therefore, members of the moral community (language eerily
similar to that used in the Dred Scott decision on slavery).
Cloning for research purposes takes this logic one step further. Now it
is not only "leftover" or "surplus" embryos that can be traded,
exploited and destroyed for human benefit. Now advocates are lobbying
hard to actually create a new class of human beings whose sole reason for existence is to be exploited, and possibly owned, by others.
Not only does this offend those who work diligently to defend the
sanctity and dignity of human life in all its forms. It likewise
horrifies secular commentators. Many who lobbied hard in favor of ESCR
drew the line at creating embryos for research (whether through cloning
or IVF). Proposals to clone embryos for research would cross that line,
representing the first time we would intentionally create human beings
solely for use of their parts. Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist
and member of President Bush's Council on Bioethics, supports ESCR and
does not believe that embryos are "persons." Nonetheless, as he notes:
There is a great distance between inviolability, on the one hand, and mere "thingness" on the other. Many advocates of research cloning see nothing but thingness. That view justifies the most ruthless exploitation of the embryo. Embryos are created with the explicit intention of eventual destruction. Deliberately creating embryos for eventual and certain destruction means the launching of an entire industry of embryo manufacture. It means the routinization, the commercialization, the commodification of the human embryo.This, he and many others argue, goes too far.
From the Therapeutic Imperative to the Therapeutic Bait-and-Switch
Advocates of ESCR and human cloning are savvy marketers. They have
learned from the past fifteen years of developments in
biotechnology—especially from the Human Genome Project and the field of
gene "therapy"—that the way to overcome public opposition to a highly
controversial new venture is to cast it in the language of therapy. The
language of therapy functions rhetorically as an argument in itself; no
further argument need be offered. No opposition will be broached. For
who but a moral barbarian could oppose a technique that may relieve the
pain and suffering or extend the life of someone who is ill, especially a
sick child?
This "therapeutic imperative" is problematic in a number of ways. It
forecloses public discourse. It trades on the compassion of the American
public, appealing emotively rather than rationally, manipulating public
opinion and policy. For Christians, while reducing suffering and
ameliorating life threatening diseases are important mandates, we must
be suspicious of rhetoric that turns health and healing into an idol, an
end in itself to which all else is sacrificed. It is also often
deceptive. As many prominent scientists have noted, any "therapeutic"
application of ESCR is most likely a long way off at best. Many
prominent scientists admit that the therapeutic promise of human
embryonic stem cell research is overstated. This is even truer with
cloning, given the preliminary nature of the work, the low efficiency
rates and the high rates of genetic deformity in cloned animals.
It is this therapeutic imperative that gives rise to concerns about the
slippery slope. Witness the shift in momentum from ESCR to cloning. As
long as "therapy" and simple utilitarianism drive the discussion, it
becomes impossible to argue against any further step that claims to
address human illness and disability. Cloning advocates and eugenic
futurists already anticipate human-animal hybrids, intentionally mutated
human bodies developed for use only as parts, the development
(intentionally or by economic default) of subclasses of human beings to
serve as slaves for the rest. Shortly after Dolly's birth, some
speculated about the possibility of a disturbing prospect: creating
headless human clones, grown in artificial wombs. Lee Silver, molecular
biologist at Princeton and cloning advocate, was quoted as finding
"nothing wrong" with doing this.
I cite these examples not to be alarmist but because cloning advocates
trumpet them as noble and inevitable outcomes. Historically,
reproductive and genetic techniques developed in animals have, for the
most part, eventually been used in humans. Already, researchers say they
have fused human DNA with ova from cows and rabbits, to circumvent the
problem that cloning requires lots of hard-to-come-by human ova.
In addition, we face what one might call the problem of the "therapeutic
bait-and-switch." Once public support has been won and techniques have
been developed, new technologies tend to become detached from their
therapeutic moorings and be made available for decidedly non-therapeutic
purposes. One need only think of the "Microsort" sperm-sorting
technology, originally developed to aid persons bearing X-linked
chromosomal disorders but immediately offered to those who wanted to
"balance" the genders of their children. Or the potential to use gene
"therapy" to treat baldness, a possibility that was heralded in 1999 as a
fortuitous outcome of research. Or Botox—the botulism toxin that was
originally developed to treat spasmodic conditions of the eyes, but
off-label has become the treatment of choice among the cosmetic surgery
set, comprising twenty percent of all cosmetic surgery interventions
done in the U.S. annually.
Should "therapeutic cloning" move forward, how would we guarantee that
embryos were created and destroyed only in service of the great and
noble good of therapy? What "off-label
uses" would be developed in the private sector? The history of
government regulation hardly instills confidence here.
Of course, the most significant "off-label" use of research cloning
would be reproductive cloning. These efforts are already afoot.
Researchers in the U.S., Italy and China all claim to have made progress
toward producing the first cloned human infant.
Although almost everyone agrees that reproductive cloning should be
banned, such a ban would be nearly impossible to enforce once we allow
cloning of human embryos for research. These researchers, and many
fertility specialists, accept the argument that cloning is simply
another form of assisted reproduction. The Human Cloning Foundation
argues that to ban cloning would violate the human and constitutional
right to reproduce in the manner of one's own choosing, without undue
government interference. Along with the quasi-religious pro-cloning
group Clonaid and scientist Richard Seed, this foundation also sees
cloning as a route to immortality.
Commodification and Exploitation
Commercial interests have under girded both eugenics and slavery. They
are major factors in the lobby behind ESCR and cloning as well. As
cultural critic Cornel West has said in another context: "the market
ethos that permeates almost every sphere of society ... makes it very
difficult to hold on to non-market values. ... It makes it difficult for
us to take, not only commitment and caring and sacrificing, but
ultimately human life seriously... Profits become much more important
than human life."
According to Patent Watch, a patent on human reproductive cloning and
any "products" created by that process, theoretically including embryos,
fetuses and children, was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office in April 2001, and three additional patents on human cloning are
pending. Such patents signal the penultimate form of discrimination –
ownership of and profit from one group of humans by another. These
render dubious any claims that researchers understand embryos as a form
of human life worthy of respect. The rhetoric is the language of
therapy, but the reality is that of hope for a financial windfall.
Finally, apart from the embryos themselves, it will be the bodies of
women that bear the greatest burden in the use of these techniques
because ova are needed for the research. The practice of cloning would
further the trend of thinking of our bodies in market terms—since the
gametes required would be bought and sold, the embryos thus created
would be "owned," and the products issuing from them could be sold. We
must also ask: who are the women who will undergo what is necessary to
sell their gametes, to make embryos solely for research? Euphemistically
referred to as egg "donors" these women will be paid. The process,
however, is quite burdensome and carries medical risks. Who will be the
women target-marketed by researchers who need ova? In what communities
will we find the advertisements "Egg Donors. Excellent Compensation"? If
history is any indicator, one can reasonably bet that it will be the
bodies of poor women of color—in the U.S. and abroad—who will bear the
burden of repeated cycles of hormone shots, surgical egg retrieval, and
the unknown risks that attend high doses of fertility hormones.
And who will bear the burden if the research bears fruit, and there is
suddenly a "need" for a production-level number of embryos to supply
tissues for patients? Feminists who support
ESCR and "abortion rights" have come out against cloning for research
purposes, in part because it will require thousands, if not millions, of
human eggs. At a minimum, to create one clone requires one oocyte. But,
given the enormous failure rate and the high percentage of deformities
among clones, dozens if not hundreds of oocytes will be required to
produce one successful cell line. To meet the therapeutic "promise" of
cloning could require hundreds of millions of eggs. As African American
women under slavery were exploited for their reproductive potential to
fuel the economic machinery of the U.S., we again find the potential for
grave reproductive exploitation of women of color and poverty, for the
benefit of wealthy Americans.
The Sheep of His Flock
In the end, the prospect of human cloning urges us to remember that we
are neither our own creators nor our own destiny. Nor are we to be the
makers, owners, or destiny of others. Hubris may lead some to make
"sheep" of others through cloning, to create a subcategory of
humans—exploited, enslaved, and destroyed for the convenience and profit
of a few. But Christians will remember that the differences that are
part of the wonder of creation do not erase our essential equality
before God. We are all the sheep of His flock. How we treat the least,
most vulnerable, most voiceless among us is a measure not of their
humanity but of our own. For what we do to them, we do unto Him.
Dr. Lysaught is an associate professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Dayton.
Copyright © 2002, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Illustration by Dolores Daly
Flessner. 0250
Resources
Teaching Documents Declaration on the Production and the Scientific and Therapeutic Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells.
Pontifical Academy for Life, 2000. Reprinted in The Pope Speaks, March-
April, 2001. Call 800-348-2440 or visit www.osvbooks.com.
Donum Vitae (Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation). Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1987. USCCB: Call 800-235-8722 or visit www.usccbpublishing.org.
The Gospel of Life. Pope John Paul II, 1995. USCCB: Call 800-235-8722 or visit www.usccbpublishing.org.
Books
Brannigan, Michael C. (ed.) Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2001.
Evans, Debra, Without Moral Limits: Women, Reproduction, and Medical Technology. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2000. Call 800-635-7993 or visit www.gnpcb.org.
Gormally, Luke (ed.) Issues for a Catholic Bioethic. London: The Linacre Center, 1999. Visit www.linacre.org.
Kilner, John F. et al. (eds.) Cutting- Edge Bioethics: A Christian Exploration of Technologies and Trends. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2002. Call 800-253-7521 or visit www.eerdmans.com.
Kristol, William and Cohen, Eric (eds.) The Future Is Now: America Confronts the New Genetics. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publ., 2002. Call 800-462-6420 or visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.
Lester, Lane P. and Hefley, James C. Human Cloning: Playing God or Scientific Progress? Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fleming H. Revell, 1998. Call 800-877-2665 or visit www.bakerbooks.com.
May, William E. Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life. Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor Books, 2000. Call 800-348-2440 or visit www.osvbooks.com.
Neuhaus, Richard J. (ed.) Guaranteeing the Good Life: Medicine and the Return of Eugenics. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1990. Call 800-253-7521 or visit www.eerdmans.com.
Smith, Wesley J. Culture of Death. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001. Call 800-786-3839 or visit www.encounterbooks.com.
Internet
www.cloninginformation.org (Americans to Ban Cloning coalition)
www.ncbcenter.org (Nat'l Catholic Bioethics Center)
www.nrlc.org (Nat'l Right to Life Committee)
www.stemcellresearch.org (Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics)
www.usccb.org/prolife (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities)