New Cloning Research Destroys Human Life

“The ‘brave new world’ of human cloning apparently has arrived, and critics are waving the warning flags. Oregon-based scientists reported Wednesday (May 15) they had cloned human embryos, reportedly the first successful attempt at such cloning, as a means of producing embryonic stem cells. The researchers extracted stem cells from the clones, destroying the days-old human embryos in the process. The scientists used basically the same cloning method utilized in 1996 by Scottish researchers to create the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep. News of the successful experiment seemed certain to revive the cloning controversy, which has been dormant in recent years. ... Critics--who point out cloning an embryo for experimentation is reproductive by nature because a new human being has been created--criticized the successful research announced in the journal Cell as both unethical and unnecessary. ... ‘Let’s be clear -- what these researchers are doing is creating a cloned human being in order to destroy that human being to harvest its stem cells for the benefit of older and bigger human beings,’ Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land told Baptist Press. ‘There are words for such activity--barbaric and uncivilized.’”

(“Barbaric: Scientists clone human embryo for the first time,” Baptist Press, May 16, 2013)

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