icelandic_iceskater Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Assuming there's no other morally impermissible acts involved (ESCR, etc) is the cloning of human organs permissible? If so, how much can you clone before it's morally impermissible? Where do you draw the line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I would think so. If they could take a part of your liver, or a donor's liver, then using adult stem cells, create a functioning liver, that would save a bunch of lives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweens8403 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I agree with CatherineM. Throughout your adult life your body uses what are called adult stem cells which are simply cells whose role in the body has not yet been specified. In fact, your red blood cells all begin like this in the bone marrow. A similar process begins after an egg is fertilized. The zygote begins to divide, and soon stem cells are produced. These stem cells will eventually differentiate into your various organs, connective tissue, blood cells, etc. The difference is that by harvesting embryonic stem cells you destroy the life they support. Harvesting adult stem cells does not result in the death of the donor. So I don't think there would be anything morally reprehensible with organ cloning. It would be akin to people donating their own blood to be used for a surgical operation later, no worries about matching. It would be expensive as all get out though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweens8403 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 nobody else has any thoughts on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Vega Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I do not see how cloning organs would comprimise the sanctity of life. Organs in and of themselves have no innate worth or dignity, or souls or anything, so I don't see how cloning organs to enhance the quality of life would be immoral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 The cost of cloning organs would be cheaper than several years worth of dialysis and the loss of productivity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggamafu Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 The interesting part of the question is: [quote]how much can you clone before it's morally impermissible? Where do you draw the line?[/quote] The soul is a non-physical entity, so it would seem inappropriate to say that a certain part of the cloning process (such as the brain) would be immoral (as if the soul "resides" in a specific body part). At the same token, cloning of persons is obviously immoral; so here is my initial reaction: Cloning of [i]individual [/i]living parts (organs and tissues) is okay, but only if they are cloned in isolation (not connected to a greater, even if incomplete, whole). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I don't want to hijack, and I'll be happy to start a new thread if you want, but there's something that was bugging me that I want to bring up. As you probably know (or at least as I heard) the UK legalized the 'production' of animal/human hybrid embryos for use in genetic research and some such evil stuff. Do you think these hybrids have human souls? If one, by a sick and twisted fluke, managed to grow and develop, could we call it human? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 [quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1764202' date='Jan 27 2009, 09:34 PM']I don't want to hijack, and I'll be happy to start a new thread if you want, but there's something that was bugging me that I want to bring up. As you probably know (or at least as I heard) the UK legalized the 'production' of animal/human hybrid embryos for use in genetic research and some such evil stuff. Do you think these hybrids have human souls? If one, by a sick and twisted fluke, managed to grow and develop, could we call it human?[/quote] This is the exact reason we should not be messing around with this stuff. When we have to worry about whether it is human or not, has a soul or not, then there is a problem. To answer your question, I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 [quote name='CatherineM' post='1764227' date='Jan 27 2009, 09:48 PM']This is the exact reason we should not be messing around with this stuff. When we have to worry about whether it is human or not, has a soul or not, then there is a problem. To answer your question, I don't know.[/quote] My thoughts on that too. It's so disgusting it's hard to even imagine.... but honestly, I don't see why it can't happen. Or rather, why it never could. People are sick enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommas_boy Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 [quote name='icelandic_iceskater' post='1762860' date='Jan 26 2009, 07:55 PM']Assuming there's no other morally impermissible acts involved (ESCR, etc) is the cloning of human organs permissible? If so, how much can you clone before it's morally impermissible? Where do you draw the line?[/quote] I agree with the general thread consensus: so long as a human life is not cloned from which to "harvest" the organs, this appears to be morally viable. However, there may be other methods that I'm not aware of. In my mind, I'm thinking of this like making a jello mold: you pour in the magic mixture into a mold of some kind and out pops an organ some time later, without the messiness of harvest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommas_boy Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 [img]http://icanhascheezburger.wordpress.com/files/2009/01/funny-pictures-cloning-results-may-vary.jpg[/img] On a serious note, we should also be cautious about where technology that enables us to grow organs modularly (ie: separate from a human body) came from. Is it the result of research that included the cloning of a person? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggamafu Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Eh. That's tough a lot of science depends on information that was gained in less than ethical ways. Oh, and they have indeed made human/animal hybrids, but [i]as far as has been publicly disclosed[/i], the hybrids have always been killed before could be "born" (reached maturity). This is still being done in some countries. You read about it in the news every few months or so. I would think a soul would be present merely from the presence of a human parent; that it may not have a fully human body but it would have a fully human soul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmotherofpirl Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Cloning organs is far better than redefining death and "harvesting" them from helpless humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 [quote name='Ziggamafu' post='1764509' date='Jan 28 2009, 08:34 AM']Eh. That's tough a lot of science depends on information that was gained in less than ethical ways. Oh, and they have indeed made human/animal hybrids, but [i]as far as has been publicly disclosed[/i], the hybrids have always been killed before could be "born" (reached maturity). This is still being done in some countries. You read about it in the news every few months or so. I would think a soul would be present merely from the presence of a human parent; that it may not have a fully human body but it would have a fully human soul.[/quote] Yea, what I heard in this news report from the UK is that the hybrid embryos are destroyed very quickly. The fact that this is the regular practice though, doesn't mean that it will always be that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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