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July 11, 2002 WASHINGTON - Here's why I think we should welcome the Kass
Council Report:
1. The Report insists on using truthful and non-Orwellian language with respect
to cloning. It insists that all cloning, for whatever purpose, always begins
with and involves human embryos. No amount of clever manipulation of scientific
terms should be allowed to hide that fundamental truth, and the Council has made
this clear by its judicious choice of simple and accurate language.
2. It draws a clear line before the advance of biotechnology, and argues for a
public policy that would slow or stop some developments having to do with the
creation and use of human embryos, even if these might promise some medical
benefits. The majority recommendation, while not a permanent ban, would ban all
human cloning for four years, including a ban on the production of cloned human
embryos. If enacted, it would lay down a marker by which society exercises some
democratic control over the direction of biotechnology. It would be a major step
forward.
3. This would set the stage for four years of a battle of public persuasion,
during which time a total ban on all cloning is in place, and during which time
opponents of cloning can make our full and forceful case for keeping that policy
in place and extending it to other embryo research, not only that on cloned
embryos. This will force a debate on the use and abuse of embryos that has
otherwise been difficult to engage.
4. Having set the stage for the public debate, the report then arms us well. It
presents, in stronger terms than I think has ever been done in a U.S. government
document, the argument for the full moral status of the embryo in the chapter on
the ethics of research cloning, in its policy recommendation, and in some of the
member statements at the end. No previous government document that I know of has
ever laid out so fully this moral and scientific case for treating the embryo as
a potential or nascent human being deserving of dignity. The report
systematically demolishes the familiar sophistic arguments that claim to show
that the embryo is a mere clump of cells. It demonstrates with remarkable
lucidity, not only on moral grounds but also on biological grounds, why treating
the embryo as less-than-human until some arbitrary point is senseless. It states
with eloquence and force the fundamental problem: that research on human embryos
would "treat what are in fact seeds of the next generation as mere raw material
for satisfying the needs of our own." And it tells us why we as a society would
be morally diminished were we to think of future generations in such terms.
5. The report--clear, intelligent, and morally well-grounded and
sophisticated--is a must-read, and the majority recommendation, while not
perfect, is a step forward.
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