12 questions on cloning

Answer each one with complete sentences. Support your conclusions!

1. What is cloning?

2. Is cloning morally right or wrong? Support your answer. (And before you just say it’s wrong and leave it at that, what is an identical twin but a clone? So it happens naturally in some circumstances)

3. If you favor it, are there times when it’s wrong? If you don’t, are there times when it’s right?

4. Would you want to be cloned? Would you clone a favorite pet?

5. Does cloning a pet involve the same ethics as cloning a human?

6. How would the cost involved affect your decision as to whether you wanted to clone your pet?

7. What are the arguments against pet cloning? Are they similar to the arguments against human cloning?

8. Do religious beliefs affect beliefs about cloning? How so? Do those beliefs come into play in deciding to clone a pet? Why or why not?

9. Should pet cloning be legal? Should human cloning be legal? How are you arriving at those decisions?

10. How will society arrive at those decisions?

11. Are fertility treatments and abortion linked to the same issues that cloning involves? (Think about this one closely. If I’m asking the question, it means that they probably do. Consider:

In in vitro fertilization eggs and sperm are taken, blastocysts are made, grown for a few days and then re-implanted, some take hold, many don’t, the rest of the blastocysts that are used are discarded, donated or studied. Abortions are when embryos that are not wanted are removed. Now, cloning deals with similar processes does it not?)

Now, consider why those two are legal and generally accepted in a secular society, but cloning is not. Discuss.

12. What are your predictions for the future of cloning? Upon what are you basing your predictions at the moment?