Abstract: . . .  while embryonic stem cell research is underway, and (b) a high moral status for cloned children is generally accepted, but the moral status of cloned embryos is disputed. Cahill urges us to broaden the public debate to include moral issues concerning the common good (types 3 and 4). Human cloning would not serve the common good, for example, if it were to further distance the rich from the poor, distort priorities for health care and health research, or undermine the bonds of family life. Study Questions 1. Moral problems arise with reproductive cloning when it is used to address infertility. (Because physical and personality traits cannot be determined solely by genes, Cahill dismisses as “highly unlikely” the prospect of cloning “whole classes of elite or subservient humans.”) She worries that reproductive cloning (1) “might give the parent or parents of a clone too much control over the child,” (2) “would seriously challenge the meaning of intergenerational relationship and parent- hood,” (3) is “too unpredictable and dangerous to be used in humans,” and to develop cloning procedures “through experimentation on human embryos and infants would be unethical,” (4) will be an expensive service available only to the rich, and (5) will further the trend toward the “com- mercialization of family and parenthood.” Research (or therapeutic) cloning to produce embryonic stem cells (1) intentionally destroys em- bryos; (2) will lead us to create new embryos with the purpose of destroying them; (3) will encourage “the exploitation of poor women who might submit to the invasive procedure of egg ex- traction for a fee”; and (4) is diverting health care resources from alleviating deadly but treatable diseases like malaria, anemia, and tuberculosis. 2. Wisdom 7:1-6 beautifully speaks to both the equality of human beings (they are descendants “of the first-formed child of earth” with a common “entrance into life”) and their solidarity (they “breathe the common air” and live on “the kindred earth”). The implied speaker, the great King Solomon, identifies himself with people of all ranks and classes. This perspective encourages us to support the common good and address the needs of the poor. The passage provides insight into the moral status of each human being, even when one is merely an embryo or newborn child, and regardless of one’s abilities and accomplishments. God cares for each human being, for within a mother’s womb one is “molded into flesh” in a manner that repeats God’s creation of Adam, “the first-formed child of earth.” Parents also care for their newborn baby, who is “nursed with care in swaddling clothes.” The context of birth is a family cooperating with God to welcome a child’s . . .
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