Human Cloning is Scientifically and Morally Unethical, Says UB Medical Ethics Expert

Human cloning is both scientifically and morally unethical, says Stephen E. Wear, associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care at the University at Buffalo.

"Scientists should not be performing research on humans until they have a viable animal model," Wear says, "and we clearly don't have one at this point."

"Even if scientists do achieve a viable model for human cloning, this is not the sort of choice one person should be making for another," adds Wear, who also is an adjunct professor of philosophy. "A cloned person is more than eye color and bone structure. You're passing along temperament and a personality, you're making choices for another human being that one shouldn't be allowed to make."

Wear suggests that society heed the lesson of the ancient Greek notion of hubris, which cautions against arrogantly misusing one's power or place in society.

"We have the technology (for human cloning), but we don't have the wisdom to use it," Wear says. "One can assume that one day human cloning will be possible, but the question for a civilized society is whether it should be allowed and at what level should it be allowed."