Download - In His Image: The Cloning of Man
In His
Image
What is Cloning?
In His Image
The English word “clone” derives from a Greek term
meaning a sprout or a twig.
Cloning refers to an asexual process of reproduction that
results in an exact genetic duplicate of the original.
The Benefits of Cloning
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Possible benefits of cloning:
Cloning could make animal husbandry more efficient.
Cloning has the potential both to reduce human suffering and
to extend human life.
Cloning also has the potential to enlarge our knowledge
about how cells differentiate and reproduce.
Ramifications of Human Cloning
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Parents could clone one child as a replacement for a child
who died.
Parents might want to clone a child to provide compatible
organ transplants for a diseased relative.
Individuals might want to guarantee themselves
immortality--if not in soul, at least in body.
Some might want to clone a human just for the prestige
from doing what no one else has been able to
accomplish.
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Homosexuals might want to clone an offspring so that
they can have a child.
Women’s liberation would be complete, since no male
would be needed.
We could learn much about human embryonic
development by researching human cloning.
Medical Ethics and Human
Cloning
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Even many atheists have ethical problems with human
cloning.
Gunther Stent: “The idea of cloning humans is morally and
aesthetically completely unacceptable.”
A Christian: “Although there has been a good deal of rhetoric
on the evils that are just ahead. I have yet to hear a cogent
ethical argument as to why even the cloning of a human
would be wrong.”
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Ethical arguments against cloning:
Any subject for a medical experiment must (a) know the risks
involved; and (b) give “informed consent.”
Medical ethics also require that the experiment be to the
subject’s benefit.
Biblical Ramifications of Cloning
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The Bible teaches us to protect human life.
God protects those who are “down-and-out” (Deut 10:17-19).
“Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow” (Is 1:17).
Matt 25:31-46.
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The Bible teaches that we should respect human dignity.
Humans are made in God’s image (Gen l:26-27).
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God He made man” (Gen 9:6).
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We are to prevent human suffering.
Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).
Jesus sent the Twelve out “to preach the kingdom of God and
to heal the sick” (Lk 9:2).
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We are to provide children with family support.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old
he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).
“And you, fathers, do not provoke you children to wrath, but
bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord”
(Eph. 6:4).
“If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for
those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse
than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8).
In His Image
We are to be good stewards with our finances.
“Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits
of all your increase” (Prov 3:9).
In the Parable of the Talents, “the lord of those servants came
and settled accounts with them” (Matt 25:19).
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The question everyone wants to know is, “Will a clone
have a soul?”
“The body without the spirit is dead” (Js. 2:26).
If a clone is living, he will have a soul.
He, therefore, will need the Gospel just like everyone else.