There has been a great deal of national hand wringing of late on the subject of cloning humans. From the President, to the Congress, there has been a countrywide rush to get in front of the media's cameras in order to appear seriously concerned that modern medicine is about to unleash Frankenstein on the countryside. It seems that science has outstripped man's ability to adapt without resorting to the threat of punitive government actions. Galileo would feel right at home. There is an outcry that transcends political and ideological boundaries that to clone a viable human being would be unethical. Of course there are those who would gladly clone a human without the intent of viability in order to harvest stem cells or other body parts for medical research. This is somehow, ethical.

Medical research on living things has come under a lot fire from those whose paltry cognitive abilities leave them defending the rights of rats, yet turning a blind eye to the rights of human embryos. The silence has been deafening. It is an interesting hypocrisy that those making the most noise about the destruction of non-human living things have zero compassion if that living thing is human in origin and potentiality. These folks will also support abortion on demand; telling us that what is being aborted is not a human being so that makes it okay. Am I the only one who sees the incredulity here? One would think the mere fact of it not being human would put it in line for their compassion.

But I digress. There really isn't a problem in my mind with cloning humans or any other creature. The problems only become problems when we consider how we are to react to the existence of cloned viable humans in our midst. Will not these be humans? If so, will they not have the same rights and protections as any other humans? If the answers are yes, then what is the problem? Are we suggesting that we have an ethical problem with creating life when we have no compunction at all with destroying it? Are we saying that creating a baby is an abomination while destroying one is a right? Who do we think we are kidding? We have already answered the question of having any ethical foundation to our actions. In a value neutral society, claiming a concern with ethics over cloning is laughable.

There is no danger involved in human cloning per se, if the resulting human is treated as a human. The problem as I see it, is that we might treat the cloned human embryo with the same callus disregard with which we treat the biologically conceived human embryo. Or perhaps the monetary cost involved in the cloning process will make the cloned humans less likely to be discarded in dumpsters out behind abortion clinics. But who knows what uses can be found for genetically engineered clones other than allowing them to grow up. Once the good parts are harvested, its into the trash and out to the alley.

My only concern with cloning is its purpose. If the purpose of cloning is to give parents with some genetic defect a defect free child by excluding the DNA of one of the parents, then that is a good thing. Such a procedure is not unlike current reproductive procedures, which uses science to help people have children. If the purpose of cloning is medical research, which will use the fetus and disregard it, then it should be opposed. But cloning in and of itself is a technology that won't soon be unlearned and it will only be a matter of time before someone somewhere clones a human and that human is allowed to grow into a human adult with all the rights, privileges, weaknesses and strengths as every other human adult. If they have a predetermined genetic immunity to AIDS or Hepatitis, good for them.