In this blog post, we will examine whether it is justified to use cloned humans under the pretext of treating incurable diseases, along with ethical issues and alternatives.
What if one day, someone who looks exactly like you appears in front of you and claims, “You are fake, and I am the real you!”? You may find this idea absurd and laugh it off. However, this story is not entirely absurd or far-fetched. Our technology is already on the verge of success in human cloning, with only a few more steps to go. This is not a story that the general public should take lightly. Through this article, I would like to argue that human cloning technology should never be developed.
Have you ever seen the movie “The Sixth Day”? This movie shows various problems that could actually arise when human cloning technology is developed, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, and raises awareness of the issue. Forces seeking to use the technology for personal and corporate gain emerge, and their control of the technology plunges society into chaos, giving rise to various ethical values and problems. The ripple effect of these problems is so significant that it makes us realize that they have the potential to destroy a country.
However, despite the countless risks revealed in the movie, scholars continue to argue that human cloning can bring tremendous benefits to society and the public if used properly. Currently, human cloning research is prohibited in Korea, but many people strongly argue that human cloning technology must be realized for the advancement of biotechnology, and the debate continues to this day. In response to this situation, I would like to use this article to emphasize the serious consequences that the development of human cloning technology will have on society and argue that human cloning research should never be pursued.
Before presenting my argument in detail, I will clarify the concept of “human cloning” that I will be discussing in this paper. Human cloning refers to “the reproduction of human embryos, which are cells in a state of cell division before they develop into fetuses after fertilization of sperm and eggs, in order to continuously produce humans with the same genes.” In a broader sense, this may also include cloning methods that use undifferentiated tissues or cells, such as embryonic stem cells, but the human cloning technology I am referring to in this article is the technology of cloning a complete individual using adult humans for a specific purpose, and I would like to present my arguments against it.
First of all, human cloning technology should not be developed because it devalues human life and can cause confusion about the value of life. Every human being has infinite value that cannot be measured by their mere existence. Everyone has special value because they are unique beings, different from others. However, if human cloning technology is developed and introduced into our society, the value of human life as something precious will gradually fade and be regarded as something useful. Human cloning will be carried out selectively according to purpose, so people will want to clone humans who are unconditionally superior and efficient. As this happens, the intrinsic value of human beings will gradually fade, and humans will literally be regarded as parts of society, as tools. In conjunction with this, an atmosphere will prevail in which humans are regarded as replaceable beings, as products that can be created, as in, “Even if this person dies, we can just clone them.” This will eventually lead to a serious trend of disregard for life. The social atmosphere, which originally held the value that all life is precious, will become confused as human values are evaluated instrumentally and degraded.
Furthermore, if human cloning technology emerges, it must be prevented because there is a high possibility that it will be used for commercial or personal gain, which will have a negative impact on society. Human cloning technology allows the selective selection of genes to create cloned humans, so companies and governments will want to use it to obtain humans with excellent labor skills. In other words, there is a high possibility that the technology will be used inappropriately for immoral and exploitative purposes by various groups and individuals. In fact, in movies such as “The Sixth Day,” which deals with human cloning, we can see that when people begin to use human cloning technology for commercial purposes, it leads to disaster. We can see that as the technology gradually begins to be abused and causes confusion among the public, it has a negative impact on society as a whole. In order for human cloning technology to flourish, it must be used strictly for the public good and for the advancement of society. However, human greed is difficult to control, so there will inevitably be people who will use this technology for their own benefit, which could ultimately lead to serious social imbalance and chaos.
Furthermore, if human cloning technology is developed and cloned humans are created, there is a high possibility that their human rights will be violated and the dignity of human life will be undermined. Therefore, human cloning technology should not be realized. If humans are cloned for the purpose of organ or tissue transplantation, their birth will not be an end in itself, but will be treated as a means to obtain other benefits. In other words, the human rights of cloned humans would be neglected. The fact that “all humans are equally entitled to human rights” is one of the most important ethical principles in modern society, and if cloning technology is developed and used, the human rights of cloned humans would be seriously threatened. Furthermore, cloned humans would be deprived of the “right to an open future” as described by German ecological philosopher Jonas. In the case of cloned humans, all of their innate conditions are already determined, and they must live for the purpose of being used as tools, so their human rights are not guaranteed at all. For example, suppose that physicists around the world are struggling with the limits of physics, and to solve this problem, they clone a new human being using Einstein’s genes. The cloned human beings born as a result would be used as tools for physics research, and their innate genes and future lives would be confined to serving the purpose of cloning. From the moment human cloning technology begins to be used, society’s view of cloned humans will change from “equals” to “tools,” and their human rights will be fatally compromised. The issue of human rights violations will eventually lead to confusion about society’s values regarding human rights, and ultimately, a society-wide trend of disregarding life will intensify. Not only Jonas in Germany, but many ecological philosophers have expressed concerns about the closed future that human cloning technology will bring.
Furthermore, human cloning technology should never be implemented because of the enormous risks it poses. Human cloning technology does not follow the normal process of fertilization, but instead uses physical means (electrical shock) to fertilize an egg with a somatic cell to transfer genetic traits. This process carries a high risk of mutation, which is inevitable no matter how advanced the technology becomes. Therefore, if human cloning technology is implemented, mutant genes will inevitably occur, and there is a high probability that the cloned human will die before birth or be born with fatal disabilities. Despite these significant risks, it is selfish to insist on implementing human cloning technology for the sake of advancing biotechnology without considering the suffering that cloned humans will endure. They are human beings with rights, and it is wrong to use technology that will cause them suffering and put them at risk.
As described above, if human cloning technology is developed and implemented, our society will face considerable turmoil and crisis, and cloned humans will be subject to human rights violations and the risk of mutations. Despite the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with human cloning technology, many people still insist that it should be developed as soon as possible. Let us now take a look at the reasons behind their arguments.
First, they argue that human cloning technology should be developed because it can cure numerous incurable diseases and thereby relieve the suffering of many patients and their families. Despite advances in medical technology, there are still many incurable diseases, and many patients are suffering as a result. In response to this situation, many advocates of human cloning argue that it is the duty of science to alleviate the suffering of patients and that human cloning technology, which can play a key role in treating incurable diseases, must therefore be developed.
Of course, their argument is valid. However, the fatal problem is that in order to cure patients with incurable diseases through human cloning research, new lives must be created and those lives must be used. As a result, existing patients will be able to be cured, but the cloned humans created for this purpose will have to have their organs or biological tissues removed, leaving them with fatal disabilities or causing them to die immediately. We must recognize that not only patients are human beings, but also cloned humans are living beings and human beings. Just because we value the people around us, it is selfish and wrong to create new life forms to alleviate their suffering, ignoring their human rights and treating them as if they were tools, thereby inflicting new suffering on cloned humans.
In addition, research similar to human cloning is currently being conducted on embryonic stem cells in order to cure incurable diseases. Since this research uses undifferentiated cells and is a method of transplantation that does not harm any adult organisms, it can be said to be free from human rights issues and social value confusion. If this research is sufficiently studied and developed, it will be possible to use it to cure many incurable diseases.
However, there is another counterargument to this. Embryonic stem cells are ultimately derived from other adult organisms, so they can be used commercially, which could undermine the value of life, making them no different from human cloning. However, transplantation technology using embryonic stem cells uses undifferentiated cells and does not harm any living organism, so it does not pose any human rights issues. Furthermore, even if embryonic stem cells are used commercially, they are undifferentiated cells and can only be used for therapeutic purposes, so there is no possibility of social confusion arising from the pursuit of private interests.
Therefore, rather than developing and implementing human cloning technology with short-sighted thinking that ignores the human rights and suffering of cloned humans just because it can bring immediate benefits and reduce patient suffering, it is desirable to conduct a wide range of other research to preserve ethical values and advance science and technology.
Another argument in favor of developing and advancing human cloning technology is that it would allow us to implant superior genes into cloned humans, enabling them to play a key role in social development and the advancement of the public interest. In particular, J.S. Mill, author of Clones and Clones, argues that we already have the technological capabilities to create cloned humans with the genes of outstanding historical figures, and that we could use this to create an enormously advanced society, so why are we not developing this technology? However, this argument is also a huge logical leap. The reason is that historically, talented people who have achieved great things did not achieve them solely through their innate (genetic) characteristics, but were greatly influenced by their acquired influences and historical background. In fact, in the case of Einstein, whom the author cited as an example, he did not achieve his amazing achievements solely through his innate talent, but also through the help of his outstanding colleagues who provided him with various experimental information, and through his own tremendous efforts. Therefore, it cannot be said that simply cloning the same genes to create new humans will necessarily lead to great achievements.
This scholar argued that the development of human cloning technology does not violate human rights. Citing the example of twins, he argued that twins are born with the same genetic traits, yet they do not consider their human rights to be violated, claiming that genetic traits and innate characteristics have no effect on human rights. However, this is also a completely wrong idea. First of all, unlike twins who are born naturally, cloned humans are created for a specific purpose and are born long after the original adult. Unlike twins, they are deprived of their right to build their own future and their right to their own identity, and are treated as if they were tools. This is a clear violation of human rights and has serious implications.
So far, we have looked at the fatal problems that would arise if human cloning technology were developed. We have seen that the development of human cloning technology could cause confusion in the values of life, which is one of the most important ethical foundations of our society, and that it could be used for private gain and cause serious human rights violations. In addition, we have discussed the fact that it is impossible to achieve technically perfect human cloning due to mutations, and therefore the risks are very high. Based on these arguments, we have argued that human cloning technology should never be developed. Some experts have argued that human cloning technology should be developed for the advancement of biotechnology and for the public good, but their arguments have failed to address the serious ethical and value-based issues involved. Regarding the role of biotechnology as presented by those who support human cloning, there are various ways to resolve the issues mentioned above, such as embryonic stem cell research, without causing the same problems, so it seems more important to develop these methods. In summary, human cloning technology, which has the potential to cause serious confusion and various crises in our society, should never be developed.
