Psychological aspects of human cloning and genetic manipulation: the identity and uniqueness of human beings

Abstract Human cloning has become one of the most controversial debates about reproduction in Western civilization. Human cloning represents asexual reproduction, but the critics of human cloning argue that the result of cloning is not a new individual who is genetically unique. There is also awaren...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reproductive biomedicine online 2009, Vol.19, p.43-50
Main Author: Morales, NM
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
cloned babies
Cloning, Organism - ethics
Genetic Engineering - ethics
genetic manipulation
human cloning
Humans
non-shared environment
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Parent-Child Relations
Personality
psychological aspects
Social Identification
Social Values
twin studies
Twin Studies as Topic
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Summary:Abstract Human cloning has become one of the most controversial debates about reproduction in Western civilization. Human cloning represents asexual reproduction, but the critics of human cloning argue that the result of cloning is not a new individual who is genetically unique. There is also awareness in the scientific community, including the medical community, that human cloning and the creation of clones are inevitable. Psychology and other social sciences, together with the natural sciences, will need to find ways to help the healthcare system, to be prepared to face the new challenges introduced by the techniques of human cloning. One of those challenges is to help the healthcare system to find specific standards of behaviour that could be used to help potential parents to interact properly with cloned babies or children created through genetic manipulation. In this paper, the concepts of personality, identity and uniqueness are discussed in relationship to the contribution of twin studies in these areas. The author argues that an individual created by human cloning techniques or any other type of genetic manipulation will not show the donor's characteristics to the extent of compromising uniqueness. Therefore, claims to such an effect are needlessly alarmist.
ISSN:1472-6483
1472-6491
DOI:10.1016/S1472-6483(10)60276-3