The Ethics of Human Cloning - Hardcover

Kass, Leon R.; Wilson, James K.

3.2

35 ratings by Goodreads

9780844740508: The Ethics of Human Cloning

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0844740500 ISBN 13: 9780844740508

Publisher: Aei Press, 1998

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Today biological science is rising on a wall of worry. No other science has advanced more dramatically during the past several decades or yielded so many palpable improvements in human welfare. Yet, none except nuclear physics has aroused greater apprehensions among the general public and leaders in such diverse fields as religion, the humanities, and government.

In this engaging book, Leon R. Kass, the noted teacher, scientist, humanist, and chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, and James Q. Wilson, the preeminent political scientist to whom four United States presidents have turned for advice on crime, drug abuse, education, and other crises in American life, explore the ethics of human cloning, reproductive technology, and the teleology of human sexuality.

Although in their lively dialgoue both authors share a fundamental distrust of the notion of human cloning, they base their resistance on different views of the role of sexual reproduction and the role of the family. Professor Kass contends that in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproudction technologies that place the origin of human life in human hands have eroded the respect for the mystery of sexuality and human renewal. Professor Wilson, in contrast, asserts that whether a human life is created naturally or artificially is immaterial as long as the child is raised by loving parents in a two-parent family and is not harmed by the means of its conception.

This accessible volume promises to inform the public policy debate over the permissible conduct of genetic research and the permissible uses of its discoveries.

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Review:

This slim volume is the best introduction to the ethical debate over human cloning now available, as two of America's most respected public intellectuals tangle over the question of whether it's a good idea to let people make genetic duplicates of themselves. Kass is firmly against human cloning; Wilson, although not exactly an enthusiast, sees no essential problem with it as long as cloned children are raised in loving, two-parent households.

The book is divided into two parts, with each writer laying out an initial position followed by mutual critiques. Kass seems to get the better of the exchange, but both writers present their views clearly, with occasional humor. (Wilson at one point shrugs off the concern that cloning will replace sexual reproduction: "Sex is more fun than cloning.... Procreation is a delight.") This outstanding book will shape a debate that's only just gotten underway. --John J. Miller

About the Author:

Leon R. Kass is chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College of University of Chicago, and the Hertog Fellow at AEI. He is the author of Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs (Free Press, 1985) and The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature (Free Press, 1994).

James Q. Wilson is the James A. Collins Professor of Mangaement and Public Policy Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Crime and Human Nature (with Richard J. Herrnstein) (Simon & Schuster, 1985), Thinking about Crime (Vintage Books, 1977), On Character (AEI Press, 1991, 1995), The Moral Sense (Free Press, 1993) and Moral Judgment (Basic Books, 1997).

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