Cloning: Right or Wrong?

A recent book, In the beginning, there was Dolly, says:

“The lamb has always been a symbol of innocence. This changed abruptly in the spring of 1997. ‘Dolly,’ a barely three-month-old sheep, hit the headlines, displacing politicians and pop stars from the front pages of newspapers and magazines. Overnight, the fluffy white ‘lamb of innocence’ had become a symbol of threat to human society through an eerie new technology—cloning.”1

Why all the fuss? Because “Dolly” was a genetically identical copy of an adult sheep—a clone. She was the first such clone of a mammal (see section on Dolly).

But how do we judge cloning according to the Bible? In answering, we will first give some biological background.

The cells of a living being—whether in the skin, lungs, nose or elsewhere—have a complete set of genetic “instructions,” known as the genome. From the very first division of the fertilized egg, the nucleus of each cell formed by successive cell divisions stores the complete genetic information.

At a very early stage of embryonic development, the cells specialize (or differentiate) so that some become nerve cells, some skin cells etc. Each performs different functions, based on different parts of the genetic code. That part of the genome which is not needed for the specialized function of a gland cell, for example, is not lost but is switched off or “asleep.”

In 1996, Ian Wilmut succeeded in awakening the hidden information of the nucleus of such a cell from its slumber.

Dolly is a copy, a clone of the sheep whose udder cell was used. A clone (from Greek klon) is an individual—plant, animal or human being—derived by asexual reproduction from another organism that has the identical hereditary components. Individuals could derive from the same cell (identical twins), or the clone could originate from the cell of another individual.

But, in spite of the fact that clones have the same genotype, they are never absolutely identical. The way an individual develops depends to a high degree on the surroundings, too (see section on Lenin).

Cloning is not a human invention. The Creator Himself planned this way of reproduction. When we plant potato tubers of the previous year, the potatoes we later harvest are just as nutritious and tasty. This is because there was no new combination of hereditary information, with one plant being pollinated with the DNA of another. They are in fact clones of the previous year’s plant.

Strawberries are also propagated from runners which are actually clones of the parent plant, bearing fruit with the same colour and taste.

We also see cloning in the animal kingdom. Aphids can reproduce both sexually and by cloning. In spring the first aphid generation hatches out of fertilized eggs. Later, the aphid lays eggs that start to divide without being fertilized They are clones of the mother. Many other animals reproduce by cloning: certain bees, ants, crustaceans, and lizards.

Concerning people, we know that identical twins are real clones. The fertilized egg splits in two, and each of these two “daughter” cells develops separately. They are individual people with an absolutely identical set of genes. Because of this they have the same innate gifts and talents, as well as the same predisposition to particular illnesses. They have the same colour hair and eyes, the same shoe size and the same features. But, in spite of this, they are two different people: each of them experiences the world in a unique way, and each is uniquely moulded by his or her individual experiences and choices. Both have their own personality, and their own soul.

So is humanity allowed to use the cloning technique? Humans are appointed rulers over “the fish of the sea and over the fowl [birds] of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). So I see no reason why it should not be used in plants and animals. Especially where there is a benefit to mankind, such as less hunger or disease. Christ’s example indicates that things (such as healing, binding wounds, peace-making, and feeding the hungry) which oppose the effects of the Curse are “blessed.”

When humans breed wheat that can be cultivated in cold areas, or use artificial selection to get cows yielding more milk, we are also “manipulating nature.” But of course, few would (or should) oppose such intervention. I think that God’s instruction to humans to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28) also allows for cloning.

The world-wide fear of cloning derives from a vague and confused anxiety about a technology that seems out of control. Gunther Stockinger wrote in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, chronicling the year 1997:

“Biologists and doctors anywhere in the world could hit upon the idea of generating genetically identical copies of geniuses, top-class athletes, artists or movie stars. The person off the shelf, or ‘Homo xerox’, would no longer be mere fiction. Even Hitlers and Stalins could be produced in the labs of bio-modelers if only one usable cell of theirs could be found.”

A major reason for this fear is that in today’s “evolutionized” world, there is no dividing line between the animal kingdom and humans, so the same ethical standards apply to dealings with both.

The Bible, however, draws a clear line between animals and humans, and gives us ethical guidelines:

• Humans were created separately, in God’s image, unlike the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:27). Our existence extends beyond physical death (Luke 16:19-31, Philippians 1:23). This is nowhere indicated for animals.

• God allowed humans to kill animals (Genesis 9:2-3). Concerning other humans, He gave the commandment: “Thou shalt not kill [the Hebrew ratsach means “murder’]’(Exodus 20:13).

• God entrusted humans with dominion over the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:26). But humans were never told to have dominion over other humans, nor manipulate them, as would be the case if cloning humans.

Furthermore, humans are meant to have fathers and mothers, to be where possible the offspring of a sacred marriage relationship, the family ordained by God. While unfortunate circumstances in a fallen world mean that sometimes children have to be raised by only one parent, a clone could neverhave two parents. Thus the artificial cloning of a complete human being, because it deliberately sets out to cause such a situation, is opposed to biblical principles.

There are further reasons for rejecting the artificial cloning of humans. Each fertilized egg, including those from cloning, is a new human individual. Yet perfecting the cloning technique requires many experiments. Many individuals would be enabled to commence life, only to be deliberately destroyed. The research director of a biotechnology firm recently said,

“My own view is that the research [on human cloning] is immoral at the present time and should always be immoral. To make the technique more efficient would require a great deal of experimentation. And to get this more refined would be at the expense of having deformed babies, etc. To get it into a situation where you could clone humans efficiently would have such a history of misery associated with it.”2

Thus, while it may be right under certain circumstances to clone animals to benefit people, I think it is absolutely wrong to try to clone humans.