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27 Hofstra L. Rev. 503 (1998-1999)
Cloning: Ethics and Public Policy

handle is hein.journals/hoflr27 and id is 513 raw text is: CLONING: ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY R. Alta Charo* Much of the discussion about cloning focuses on whether the act of cloning is right or wrong, according to some theory of morality. This is a worthy debate, and one that should help people to decide for them- selves whether to take advantage of this technology, should it become available to them. But at the level of public policy, there is a different debate, for example, whether cloning should be forbidden or permitted. It is insufficient to argue that cloning is wrong and therefore should be forbidden. Many things are wrong but nonetheless are permitted, includ- ing bad manners, lying (except, for example, when under oath), and having a child when one is too young or impoverished to care for it as one should. The reasons for avoiding a governmental prohibition of such bad acts are many; governmental action might, for example, be in- effective, overly intrusive, oppressive, or harmful to third parties. In other words, at times, governmental prohibitions represent a cure that is worse than the disease. In the public testimony and submissions to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), three kinds of arguments were heard. Each represented a different kind of analysis that led to a conclusion that cloning is wrong. And each was linked to a particular set of policy concerns. In the end, the NBAC found that all but one of the arguments for the wrongness of cloning failed to overcome the obstacles to en- shrining that moral conclusion in law. The first set of arguments focused on the motivations of those who might want to use cloning, a so-called relational argument. By this analysis, cloning is neither intrinsically good nor intrinsically bad. Rather, when done for good reasons, it is ethically acceptable. When the motivations are bad, the act itself is bad as well. By way of example, some people argued that if cloning were used * Professor of Law and Medical Ethics, University of Wisconsin, with a joint appointment to the Law School and the Medical School. Professor Charo is a member of the National Bioethics Advisory Committee.

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