Human Clones—Created to Die

A recent breakthrough has enabled scientists to produce cloned human embryos as a new source of embryonic stem cells. The technique is the same one that produced living clones like Dolly the sheep in 1997. This breakthrough suggests that producing human children through cloning may eventually be possible.

Many are concerned that in the future, cloned people might be exploited and denied basic human rights. For this reason, the United Nations and European Union are both opposed to human cloning, as are some U.S. states and some countries.

Although the embryonic clones are produced using an egg and DNA from the person to be cloned rather than the result of the union of egg and sperm from parents, the embryos are just as human as embryos that result from in vitro fertilization. The tragedy is that these cloned embryos are created to die. They are killed when their stem cells are harvested.

Destroying human embryos to harvest stem cells is wrong, whether the embryos are naturally conceived, clones, or products of in vitro fertilization. All are made in the image of God and are precious in His sight.

Incidentally, alternatives to embryonic stem cells are available. Both adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells offer a similar low risk of rejection without destroying human life.