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Argument: Human cloning "plays God" less than lauded therapeutic cloning
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"The case for cloning humans". The Age. January 1, 2003 - "I mention God, and to some people it seems that God alone should have power over life and death. It is playing God for us to interfere in this way with the reproductive process. Such an objection may actually be the most powerful for some people. The sin of hubris - Icarus trying to be like God and flying too high - there has always been literature about the need to accept human limitations. The recognition of limits and acceptance of our destiny is an attitude we have admired and thought noble.
When it comes to playing God, stem cell research might be more of a problem. I refer to the cloning of embryos in order to harvest cells. God's purposes for embryos may be presumed to include that of procreation. Whatever else embryos are intended for, one of their purposes is to make it possible for babies to be born. Cloning involves the use of advanced reproductive technology precisely for this purpose - to produce a baby. However, therapeutic cloning (for stem cells) is a matter of starting the reproductive process and then killing off the embryo so that stem cells can be collected. In which case, can we be said to be playing God? And yet there is widespread agreement as to the rightness of therapeutic cloning."
