Human Cloning and Xenotransplantation

Bioethics examines the ethics of techniques and practices in biotechnology. In this book, I focus on the bioethics of human cloning and xenotransplantation. Cloning refers to the use of artificial processes to produce a genetically identical copy of biological materials and entities-anything from genes, cells, and tissues to entire organisms. Three primary types of cloning exist-gene cloning, therapeutic cloning, and reproductive cloning. Each of these three types involves different techniques and processes, and has different applications and purposes-which means that different ethical issues arise depending on the type of cloning one is discussing. Gene cloning tends to be the least controversial ethically, while reproductive cloning is the most controversial. That being said, many of the same ethical and moral deliberations with respect to the status of the human embryo arise in both human therapeutic and human reproductive cloning. >Cutting directly to my own position on these matters, I think that human cloning research is extraordinarily complex ethically. Personally I do not like any process that involves the instrumental use of human embryos. However, I recognize that informed opinions may vary, and I therefore think we should increase democratic input into the decision making concerning human cloning. In other words, I think society should decide. On xenotransplantation, my own view is far stronger. For the reasons that I set out in this book, I am convinced that xenotransplantation must be banned globally-fully, and permanently. To do otherwise is to court another global pandemic, one that could prove far worse than what we have already endured with SARS-CoV-2 and the horrific, worldwide suffering and death of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is, above all else, my opposition to xenotransplantation that compelled me to write this book.