{"id":3010,"date":"2016-04-07T21:05:55","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T20:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2016-04-07T21:05:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T20:05:55","slug":"how-we-feel-about-human-cloning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2016\/04\/07\/how-we-feel-about-human-cloning\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Feel about Human Cloning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Guest post by Joshua May<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Suppose you desperately want a healthy child to build a family of your own. \u00a0As is increasingly common, however, you can\u2019t do it naturally &#8211; whether from infertility, a genetic disease you don\u2019t want to pass on, or a non-traditional relationship. \u00a0If you seek a genetic connection with the child, there are some limitations to the main alternatives: adoption, surrogacy, and in vitro fertilization. \u00a0You may yearn for more options.<\/p>\n<p>How would you feel about cloning? \u00a0Take the nucleus of a cell from yourself or a loved one, then put it into an egg that will eventually develop into a baby that shares nearly all the genes of the donor cell. \u00a0The resulting baby will simply be a kind of \u2018delayed twin\u2019 of the donor.<\/p>\n<p>Most people believe this is immoral. \u00a0There\u2019s a bit more support for therapeutic uses that merely create new tissue, for example. \u00a0But, at least in the US and UK, people overwhelmingly condemn cloning for the purposes of creating new human lives. \u00a0In fact, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/poll\/170789\/new-record-highs-moral-acceptability.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">recent poll<\/a> suggests there is little disagreement in America over this issue, where human cloning is among the most widely condemned topics (alongside polygamy and infidelity).<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what people think, but how do they <em>feel<\/em>? \u00a0Controversial bioethical issues often generate intense feelings. \u00a0Some bioethicists treat cloning in particular as a line in the sand that we mustn\u2019t cross, for fear of sliding down a slippery slope to a dystopia.<\/p>\n<p>Consider Leon Kass, who played a major role in public policy as chair of George W. Bush\u2019s President\u2019s Council on Bioethics. \u00a0Kass argues that there is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholiceducation.org\/en\/science\/ethical-issues\/the-wisdom-of-repugnance.html\" target=\"_blank\">wisdom in repugnance<\/a> toward human cloning, allowing us to \u2018intuit and feel, immediately and without argument, the violation of things that we rightfully hold dear\u2019. \u00a0As opposed to mere unease or sadness, Kass and some others have argued that disgust is such a powerful and distinctive emotion that we should take it seriously as a moral guide when deliberating about ethical issues.<\/p>\n<p>An empirical claim lurks. \u00a0Such bioethicists assume that people in general share their reaction of repugnance. Besides, if we can uncover the emotional reactions people tend to feel toward disputed moral issues, then we can better understand why they hold the beliefs they do. \u00a0Does the prospect of cloning humans make us sick? \u00a0Scared? \u00a0Sad? \u00a0Angry? \u00a0Excited? \u00a0At ease?<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/42\/1\/26.full.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">my paper<\/a>, I provide some initial evidence that people (at least in the States) feel primarily <em>anxious<\/em> and <em>curious<\/em> about human reproductive cloning. \u00a0These were the most frequently self-reported negative and positive emotions, not disgust, fear, sadness, anger, excitement, amusement, comfort, or joy.<!--more-->Now disgust was interestingly the third most commonly reported negative emotion when selected from a pre-set list. \u00a0But only about one third of participants selected it, and even fewer mentioned disgust before seeing such a list. \u00a0Moreover, the term \u2018disgust\u2019 is used in many ways, sometimes just to indicate one\u2019s moral disapproval rather than an emotion. \u00a0For example, writer Philip Pullman once condemned a ban on sending prisoners books in prison, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2014\/mar\/24\/mark-haddon-online-petition-prison-ban-books\" target=\"_blank\">calling it \u2018disgusting\u2019<\/a>. \u00a0Such uses of the term may well be to merely signal one\u2019s disapproval, not to report an emotional reaction that is guiding one\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n<p>Data on people\u2019s reactions don\u2019t directly support the morality or immorality of human cloning. \u00a0But there are various implications.<\/p>\n<p>First, it\u2019s not so clear that there\u2019s a \u2018widespread\u2019 reaction of repugnance to human cloning that we should heed. \u00a0Our emotional reactions are more complicated and varied. \u00a0Even if there are sound arguments against human cloning, arguments from repugnance rest on shaky ground.<\/p>\n<p>Second, we should be careful to attribute certain reactions to the populace without some empirical data in support. \u00a0We should scrutinise, for example, talk of \u2018the widespread repugnances of humankind,\u2019 as Kass has put it.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I hope this initial dataset will motivate further research on how we think and feel about various contemporary moral issues. \u00a0The kinds of reactions people have can illuminate their concerns and the nature of the moral disagreements that animate public discourse.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to human cloning, for example, we now have some evidence that people don\u2019t necessarily feel repugnance toward it and thus don\u2019t perceive cloning as violating things they hold dear. \u00a0The combination of anxiety and curiosity may indicate instead that the morality of human cloning is question because it\u2019s perceived as novel and unpredictable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Read the full paper <a href=\"http:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/42\/1\/26.full.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/em><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post by Joshua May Suppose you desperately want a healthy child to build a family of your own. \u00a0As is increasingly common, however, you can\u2019t do it naturally &#8211; whether from infertility, a genetic disease you don\u2019t want to pass on, or a non-traditional relationship. \u00a0If you seek a genetic connection with the child, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2016\/04\/07\/how-we-feel-about-human-cloning\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2147,2153,443,2022,577,576],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genetic-jiggerypokery","category-guest-post","category-jme","category-reproduction","category-resource","category-the-art-of-medicine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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