Download What is Cloning?

Contemporary Ethical Issues.
Part 1
WEEK 8
Prepared by:
Dr. Ahamad Faosiy
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, AIU
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MEANING
MEANING
OVERVIEW
Suicide
Abortion
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What is Cloning?
 The term refers to somatic cell nuclear
transfer (SCNT).
 Cloning is the creation of a genetic
copy of a sequence of DNA or of the
entire genome of an organism.
 Dolly is the 1st mammal ever to be
cloned using SCNT. It came into the
world as an innocent lamb.
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Types of cloning.
• Cloning for research and therapy: the
embryo cloned through SCNT is not
transferred into womb; rather it is
used to obtain tissue- or patient
specific stem cell.
• Human reproductive cloning:
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Issues
• Advocates of human cloning believe
that the practice could provide
genetically identical cells for
regenerative medicine, and tissues and
organs for transplantation.
• They hope to create a fertility
treatment that allows parents who are
both infertile to have children with at
least some of their DNA in their
offspring.
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Cont.
• Human cloning might terminate the
human aging process.
• Cloned organ will not be rejected by
the patient’s body after the
transplantation.
• It can provide homosexual couples
with genetically related children.
• It would enable prospective parents to
control the genome their children
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Ethical Issues
• The ethical issues with reproductive
cloning include genetic damage to the
clone,
• Health risks to the mother,
• Very low success rate meaning loss of
large numbers of embryos and fetuses,
• Psychological harm to the clone
• Complex altered familial relationships,
and commodification of human life.
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Questions to be ponder upon.
• Who has the right to have children, no matter how they are
created? Who doesn't? Why?
• Is human cloning "playing with nature?" If so, how does that
compare with other reproductive technologies such as in vitro
fertilization or hormone treatments?
• If a clone originates from an existing person, who is the
parent?
• What are some of the social challenges a cloned child might
face?
• Do the benefits of human cloning outweigh the costs of
human dignity?
• Should cloning research be regulated? How, and by whom?
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Surrogacy.
• Surrogacy is when another woman
carries and gives birth to a baby for the
infertile couple.
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Type of Surrogacy.
• Genetic surrogacy or partial surrogacy: Here the egg
of the surrogate mother is fertilized by the
commissioning male's sperm. In this way the
surrogate mother is the biological mother of the
child she carries.
• Total surrogacy: Here the surrogate mother's egg is
fertilized with the sperm of a donor - not the male
part of the commissioning couple.
•
Gestatory surrogacy or full surrogacy: Here the
commissioning couple's egg and sperm have gone
through in vitro fertilization and the surrogate
mother is not genetically linked to the child.
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Types of Surrogacy arrangements:
• Altruistic surrogacy: here, the surrogate mother is
not paid for her 'service'. She 'offers her womb' as
an act of 'altruism'. Often there will be a preestablished bond between the surrogate mother
and the expecting couple.
• Commercial surrogacy: compensation is given for
carrying the child. Often there will be a mediator, a
surrogacy agency that deals with all the practical
arrangements: finding a suitable surrogate mother
and dealing with all the paperwork etc.
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Pro-surrogacy.
• Fulfilling dream of having baby by
infertile
• Adoption is difficult and takes a long
time with psychological evaluations
and waiting list etc.
• Surrogate Mothers are conscious of
their choice! They are well informed
and well paid.
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Ethical claim against surrogacy.
• A typical objection to surrogacy (particularly
commercial surrogacy) is comparing the
physical aspects of it to a form of
prostitution:
• In both cases one can view the women as
selling physical, intimate, bodily services.
Selling their bodies and their function for
money!
• It turns Babies into Commodities, therefore,
no room for natural bond to the baby.
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Cont.
• There are so many children in need of
a home - surrogacy will jeopardize the
chances of adoption.
• Surrogacy is for the Wealthy Only!
• Exploiting Third World Women as Baby
Machines! E.g commercial surrogacy is
legal in India.
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What is Euthanasia
• ...originally meant 'good death, but in modern
society it has come to mean a death free of
any anxiety and pain, often through the use of
medication.
• Most recently, it has come to mean 'mercy
killing' -- deliberately putting an end to
someone's life in order to spare the
individual's suffering."
• The act of killing someone painlessly
(especially someone suffering from an
incurable illness)
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Cont.
• The British House of Lords Committee
on Medical Ethics defines it as "a
deliberate intervention undertaken
with the express intention of ending a
life, to relieve intractable suffering".
• In the Netherlands, it is understood as
"termination of life by a doctor at the
request of a patient.
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Cont.
• it is categorized in different ways,
Voluntary euthanasia is legal in some
countries and U.S. states. Nonvoluntary euthanasia is illegal in all
countries. Involuntary euthanasia is
usually considered murder.
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Issues.
• Is euthanasia ethical?
• Why some country legalise form of
euthanasia?
• Euthanasia destroys societal respect
for life, degrades humanity and leads
to a variety of social ills.
• If it becomes legal, there will be
potential for abuse at the hands of
caregivers.
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Pic.
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Suicide.
• It is an act of intentionally causing one's own
death. it is often committed out of despair,
the cause of which is frequently attributed
to a mental disorder such as depression,
bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism,
or drug abuse.
• During the samurai era in Japan, seppuku
was respected as a means of atonement for
failure or as a form of protest.
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Cont.
• Suicide also known as completed suicide is
the "act of taking one's own life“
• .Attempted suicide or non fatal suicidal
behavior is self injury with the desire to end
one's life that does not result in death.
• Assisted suicide is when one individual helps
another bring about their own death
indirectly via providing either advice or the
means to the end. In contrast to euthanasia.
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Cont.
• In most forms of Christianity, suicide is
considered a sin, but it was not
considered a sin under the Byzantine
Christian code of Justinian
• Islam totally rejects it. Wala taktulu
anfusakum……
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Abortion.
• It is the termination of pregnancy by
the removal or expulsion from the
uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to
viability.
• It can occur spontaneously, which is
usually called a miscarriage, or it can
be purposely induced. The term
abortion most commonly refers to the
induced abortion of a human
pregnancy
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Pregnancy & Intention.
• In the United States:
• 49% of pregnancies were unintended
(2006). Of unintended pregnancies,
49% ended in abortions
• Unintended pregnancies increased
among poor women,
• decreased among financially well-off
women.
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Reason given for abortion.
• Concern for/responsibility to other
individuals 74%
• Cannot afford a baby now 73%
• A baby would interfere with school/
employment/ability to care for
dependents 69%
• Would be a single parent/having
relationship problems 48%
• Has completed childbearing 38%
• Source: Finer et al., 2005 (2004 data)
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Two Principal Moral Considerations
• The moral status of the fetus
• Is the fetus a person? At what stage in
its development, does it becomes a
person? Conception? 1st trimester? Or
Birth?
• The rights of the pregnant woman
• Does the pregnant woman have the
right to decide if she is going to carry
the baby or not?
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Immoral & Illegal.
• Is abortion morally wrong?
• Should abortion be illegal?
• These are distinct issues. Not everything
that is immoral is necessarily illegal. We
may, for example, want to say that
being unfaithful in one’s marriage is
immoral, but we may not want to see it
made illegal.
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Main argument against abortion
• P1 The fetus is an innocent person.
• P2 It is morally wrong to end the life of
an innocent person.
• Therefore, it is morally wrong to end
the life of a fetus
• What are the necessary conditions of
personhood?
• What are the sufficient conditions of
personhood?
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‫شكرا‬
Thank you
Terima kasih
Eseun o
Merci
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