Ethics Debate Quotes
Freedman was the producer and narrator of a TV series on sophisticated topics of science. There are a number of jurisdictions in the world where it is not a crime to clone a human being. Once someone implants a clone into a human female, there is little society can do little to “prevent” the clone from being born. Many religious fundamentalists who oppose human cloning will fight to protect the life of the clone baby in utero. For all we know, clones have already been born and are attending school with other children as no one could easily tell that a child (or an adult) is a clone.
In one of the disgraces of American history, there was then an active Eugenics movement that advocated forced sterilization of people who were “unfit” to bear children. Over 20 states sterilized tens of thousands of American citizens who did not meet the “standards” of the state authorities who set the criteria of fitness. Sanger was one of those who called the implementation of Eugenics into question. However, note that even she accepted the notion of forced sterilization of mentally retarded people. Ironically, while some types of mental defects are heredity determined, others are not. The issue is a slippery slope under any conditions.
This was written over 2 decades before Dolly the sheep was first cloned. Since his call for a societal public discussion about cloning, there has been very little, but by the 21st century there had been just a few hasty, ill-informed, almost hysterical efforts to legislate on the subject.
There have usually been some members of Congress who want the government to regulate the private lives of people so that they conform to a particular view of morality. What is dramatic about this quotation is that it had only been 2 months since Pearl Harbor and the Philippines and Singapore had fallen to the Japanese. The nation was very confused shifting to a wartime economy and deal with rationing and stimulating war material production. Yet some members of Congress would see the morality of dancing as a problem worthy of the time and attention of our legislative branch.
