Reviewed in: Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology
Reviewed by: Susan Holloway (Clinical Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh)
The author begins with a brief history of cloning and discusses some of the present and potential uses of animal cloning in the treatment of human disease. A distinction is made between 'reproductive cloning' - generating a human child by cloning - and 'therapeutic cloning' - in which embryos are used as a source of pluripotent stem cells. The booklet only deals with the former use of cloning and it would have been of interest to have some discussion of the latter. He discusses the issue of risk i.e. for whose benefit and at whose cost is cloning being done. The risk to the child produced by cloning cannot be measured until it is born. He also argues that since we are introducing the element of 'making' into procreation we may see the child as a commodity rather than an individual for whom we have respect. There might be a gradual change in attitudes so that it became normal to control the genotype of one's children and it might be considered irresponsible not to do so. As a Christian the author states that 'attempts to create a person would be tantamount to taking upon ourselves tasks which belong to God alone'. He accepts that such an issue is unlikely to convince somebody who is not a Christian. However the author wisely challenges the church to be a community in which the truth of what it says can be clearly seen. Only then may its theological claims be taken seriously.