Human Cloning - Distortions in Parent - Child Relationships?

Human cloning (HC) will make it possible for parents to have exactly the kind of child they want - at least from the point of view of genetics. Throughout history parents have conceived children and hoped for the best. All parents could be certain of is that some combination of their two sets of genes would produce a new human being - their child. But the number of possible combinations is very large, and often a child has very few of the physical and personal qualities the parents were hoping for. It is thought that HC would eliminate much of this uncertainty, at least regarding physical characteristics.

Creating a child who is a clone strips all of randomness from the process of reproduction. Literally, with cloning, what you see is what you get with respect to surface qualities. If a father of a male clone is six feet tall, the cloned child will likely grow to a similar height. If a mother of a female clone has superior athletic ability, the cloned child will likely develop such skills. If the parent has blue eyes, the clone's eyes will be blue. A very smart parent of a clone will likely have a very smart child.

Arbitrariness in reproduction is eliminated. An athletic father no longer needs to fear that his son will only be interested in chess and massively multiplayer online role-playing games. A mother who is a physics professor can conceive a cloned child secure in the knowledge that her daughter will have interests that include such things as thermodynamics and number theory.

In other words, HC provides a mechanism by which parents can exert significant control over their children's processes of development, interests, and activities. To the extent that genetics determines such types of human outcomes, HC enables parents to manipulate the choices their children make.

In a certain sense, not much would be changed by HC. Parents have always had hopes and dreams for their children. Most parents attempt to manipulate their offspring, benignly or otherwise, toward choices the parents think will be beneficial. But creating a clone is radically more proactive than merely making suggestions and offering encouragement, however strenuously these are put forward. When a parent creates a clone she is saying, in effect, "I want this child to be exactly like me". Or "I want this child to have exactly the characteristics and qualities of the person from whom he will be cloned."

And, significant stresses may be put in place in the life of the cloned child to ensure that these characteristics and qualities will manifest. In this way, HC opens the door for significant distortions in the parent-child relationship. The child's experience may certainly be that of limited self-expression and limited choice.

David Lemberg, M.S. in Bioethics, Albany Medical College, May 2010

Consultant, Author, Speaker. Research interests - health care and health care policy, reproductive technologies, genetics and genomics, K-12 science education. Executive Producer, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, http://scienceandsociety.net
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