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"[Surplus] embryos that will be used for research do not have a brain," Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer wrote recently in The Age (Australia). "They have no nervous system. They cannot feel pain. They are not conscious."

Despite Singer's argument, at no point in the life of any human, even a clone, is that being anything other than human from its first-cell stage, until decades later, at the body's last heartbeat. In the wake of many historic abuses, scientists, ethicists, and lawmakers have developed widely embraced limits on research that would be violated if cloning is legalized.

Advances in cloning will require many embryos to be destroyed in experimentation. Cloning research goes against the bioethical requirement that human subjects grant "informed consent." That's not possible with an embryo. It would be cruel to ask a parent or guardian to authorize taking a human life to assist medical research.

Cloning proponents offer no assurance that reasonable limits would be enacted to prevent clone farms, designer children, or eugenics. Cloning undermines human dignity, which for Christians is based on the biblical understanding that each person is an individual whose ultimate maker is the God of all Creation.

The Senate will soon debate and vote on the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S. 1899). This well-drafted legislative ban on all human cloning places a clear moral limit on biotech research. Senators should show wisdom by approving it. Our goal should not be to make cloning "safe and effective," but to make it illegal.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today recommended against human cloning in a 1997 editorial, "Stop Cloning Around."

For explanations on how cloning is done, see Conceiving a Clone, Science Matters, and How Cloning Works.

In April, President Bush called on the Senate to back Senator Brownback's ban saying, "Allowing cloning would be taking a significant step toward a society in which human beings are grown for spare body parts, and children are engineered to custom specifications; and that's not acceptable."

Severino Antinori said last week that three women are now pregnant with clones.

Yahoo's full coverage and Christianity Today'sLife Ethics archive have current news articles and opinion pieces on human cloning.

See our October cover story, "A Matter of Life and Death: Why shouldn't we use our embryos and genes to make our lives better? The world awaits a Christian answer."

Recent Christianity Today articles on cloning and bio-ethics include:

Weblog: 'All Human Cloning Is Wrong,' Says BushPublic is 4-to-1 against all human cloning, but Senate is evenly split on comprehensive ban.

Weblog: The Prolife PushIt's 2002, time to ban cloning. (January 15, 2002)

New Coalition Rallies Against Human CloningAfter Advanced Cell Technology announcement, sharp criticism comes from all sides. (December 20, 2001)

Books & Culture Corner: "Daddy, What Is the Soul?"Does the church have an answer? (December 10, 2001)

Books & Culture Corner: 'We Now Know'The boast of imperial science. (December 3, 2001)

Opinion Roundup: 'Only Cellular Life'?Christians, leaders, and bioethics watchdogs react to the announcement that human embryos have been cloned. (November 29, 2001)

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May 21 2002, Vol. 46, No. 6