The Naked Clone: How Cloning Bans Threaten Our Personal Rights

188 Pages·2003·0.54 MB·English

by  John Charles Kunich

The Naked Clone:
How Cloning Bans
Threaten Our
Personal Rights
JOHN CHARLES KUNICH
PRAEGER
The Naked Clone
The Naked Clone
How Cloning Bans Threaten Our
Personal Rights
JOHN CHARLES KUNICH
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kunich, John C., 1953–
The naked clone : how cloning bans threaten our personal rights / John Charles Kunich
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 0–275–97964–4 (alk. paper)
1. Human cloning—Law and legislation—United States. 2. Civil rights—United States.
I. Title
KF3831.K86 2003
342.73⬘085—dc21 2003042931
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2003 by John Charles Kunich
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003042931
ISBN: 0–275–97964–4
First published in 2003
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the children of the world, present and future,
and to all of the people who love and believe in them.
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter One: Cloning in Science and Science Fiction 1
Chapter Two: Cloning Law in the United States 29
Chapter Three: International Law and Cloning around the World 63
Chapter Four: Galileo in Modern Chains and the Banning of
Scientific Research 87
Chapter Five: The Naked Clone and Bans on
Reproductive Cloning 117
Chapter Six: The Proper Role of Law in Cloning 149
List of Cases 159
Glossary 163
Index 167
Preface
Every human being has legal rights. These rights do not depend on
whether a person came to be through in vitro fertilization, artificial insem-
ination—or cloning.
Human cloning is inevitable, and the law must adjust. The title of this
book, The Naked Clone, highlights how far off the mark the legal debate on
cloning has been. The widespread public horror that has greeted the
dawning of mammalian cloning is being translated into laws, and often
outright bans, on the cloning of human beings, particularly reproductive
cloning (cloning to produce children). Children will not be born at all
because of these bans, and potential parents will be denied the children
they could have had. The very processes that could have enabled these
children to be born are criminalized and outlawed. The child of cloning—
often inaccurately and callously called a “clone”—is therefore rendered
naked and alone, in the legal sense. No laws shelter this child who will
never be born. No laws cover this child with their protective shield and
enable him or her to begin life. And the hopeful parents of this child are
left similarly bereft.
The naked clone situation is happening right now. Within the United
States, six states have enacted bans on human cloning in some form, and
many more are considering it. The United States Congress has come close
to enacting a permanent, sweeping ban on both reproductive cloning and
therapeutic/research cloning, with the enthusiastic support and encour-
agement of President George W. Bush. Numerous other nations have
already passed their own bans of various types, including the United King-
dom, Germany, Japan, Israel, Spain, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand,