Listening to Odyssey on NPR today (Wed 2/21), where
the issue of human cloning was debated, something
struck me.
The scientists on the program (a professor in Cell and
Molecular Biology from Northwestern and a professor in
Social Thought from U of Chicago) agreed that it is
probable that a human cloning will take place in the
future, perhaps even in the near future (quote "in
months"), and then they discussed the scientific,
technological, economical, medical, and ethical
implications of a human clone.
I am not a biologist or chemist, so I am not able to
really discuss these matters, but what struck me, and
what was not even mentioned in the program, is the
question 'What is a human being?' As a Christian I
think that a human being is a body and a soul/spirit.
If that is true, the further question is if a
scientist can create a human being. Totally ignorant
of how a human cloning is performed, is it really
possible to make a human being in a lab? And if it is,
then isn't Christian doctrine with respect to man
simply false, and materialism is true?
My questions presuppose that something immaterial
can't come out of something material, and that the
soul/spirit of a human being is immaterial.
Perhaps I have just misunderstood what a human clone
is?
Bjorn Moller
Philosophy Dept.
Loyola University Chicago
E-mail: dj_mic20@yahoo.com
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