Human cloning: who or what counts?

Gboyega Adebola Ogunbanjo; Donna Knapp van Bogaert

Human cloning: who or what counts?

Gboyega Adebola Ogunbanjo Associate Editor - South African Family Practice
Donna Knapp van Bogaert University of the Witwatersrand

Keywords: Human cloning, reproductive cloning, ethical, dilemma

Abstract

Human cloning has become a controversial topic because of ethical, moral and, to some extent, legal concerns. This article discusses therapeutic cloning, in which the purpose is to replace a defective tissue in order to restore its function, and reproductive cloning, which is a specific technique in which a donor adult cell is transferred into the egg of another. In the article, the authors ask the following questions: Is reproductive cloning a crime against humanity? Or are we worried about the disruption of the traditional way we reproduce? These questions highlight the concern that, with reproductive cloning, a clone can be produced without a sperm or without the egg’s genetic material. The article discusses the ethical implications of reproductive cloning.

Author Biographies

Gboyega Adebola Ogunbanjo, Associate Editor - South African Family Practice

MBBS, FCFP(SA), M FAM MED, FACRRM, FACTM, FAFP(SA) Department of Family Medicine & PHC Faculty of Health Sciences University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus) Pretoria

Donna Knapp van Bogaert, University of the Witwatersrand

PhD, D. Phil Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics Faculty of Health Sciences School of Clinical Medicine University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg

Published

2011-01-25

Issue

Vol 52, No 6 - November/December 2010

Section

Ethics CPD Supplement

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