Perfect Copy Unravelling the Cloning Debate

Here Nicholas Agar provides a perfect guide to a labyrinthine debate.

List of illustrations

vi

About the author

vii

Acknowledgements

vii

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE AND ETHICS OF HUMAN CLONING

1

(10)

Perils and possibilities

1

(6)

Hollywood misses the point

7

(4)

1 THE RULES OF ETHICAL ENGAGEMENT

11

(10)

The intrinsic value of human fife

11

(5)

Two ways to be inconsistent about human cloning

16

(1)

Why appeals to God, or to 'our guts', won't work

17

(4)

2 EXPLAINING SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER (SCNT)

21

(27)

What is a clone?

21

(3)

How would clones be made?

24

(5)

Two barriers in the way of cloning humans

29

(4)

Turning back the biological clock

33

(4)

Cloning or clowning? Two false alarms

37

(2)

Well hello, 6LL3!

39

(3)

Is Dolly for real?

42

(5)

Mice, cows, pigs, goats, cats, rabbits...and a gaur

47

(1)

3 CLONING AFTER DOLLY

48

(34)

Cloning and error

48

(1)

Cloning is inefficient and clones are sickly

49

(6)

Are clones unhealthy because they have shorter telomeres?

55

(3)

Are clones unhealthy because nuclear transfer does not properly reprogram genes?

58

(4)

Are clones unhealthy simply because they are created without sex?

62

(4)

What does the 'too dangerous' objection show?

66

(2)

Using abortion as a means of reducing the risks associated with reproductive cloning

68

(6)

How effective would selective abortion be, anyway?

74

(3)

Is it possible to harm someone by bringing them into existence as a clone?

77

(5)

4 THERAPEUTIC CLONING

82

(27)

Two reasons to clone humans

82

(3)

A new kind of transplant medicine?

85

(6)

Practical problems with therapeutic cloning

91

(3)

Therapeutic cloning and the annihilation of human potential

94

(3)

Natural and artificial potential

97

(4)

Building a human kidney

101

(1)

...or finding one in a pig

102

(2)

The human spare-parts body

104

(5)

5 CLONINGAND IMMORTALITY

109

(26)

Three senses of identity

114

(2)

Would my clone be identically similar to me?

116

(5)

Just how similar would my clone be to me?

121

(4)

Would my clone be metaphysically identical to me?

125

(7)

What remains of the quest for immortality?

132

(2)

Does cloning harm our subjective senses of who we are?

134

(1)

6 JUST ANOTHER REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY?

135

(25)

Making babies

135

(2)

The clone-family?

137

(2)

Biological and social parenthood

139

(5)

Cloning for the clinically infertile

144

(1)

Valuing the genetic link

145

(3)

Cloning might produce 'replacement' children for bereaved couples

148

(1)

Cloning might allow lesbians to reproduce without men

149

(1)

Cloning might provide a child who can also be an organ donor

150

(1)

Making moral judgements about the reproductive choices of others

151

(1)

Replacing a lost child?

152

(1)

Cloning as a means of improving the human species?

153

(4)

Clones as means to other ends?

157

(3)

7 FEAR ITSELF CAN BE FRIGHTENING

160

(13)

Clones in the popular imagination

160

(4)

Liberal optimism about the truth

164

(4)

Not surrendering to irrational prejudice?

168

(2)

The future of human cloning

170

(3)

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Perfect Copy Unravelling the Cloning Debate

Summary

Table of Contents

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