Erik Bussa needs to be more careful with his word choice while criticizing cloning. Cloning itself is amoral. Applications of cloning technology can either be immoral or moral. I personally would agree with Bussa in his opinion that cloning an entire human organism would be a bad idea.

Bussa is mistaken by saying that cloning will allow for two or more people to be exactly identical. At best, they would be as similar as identical twins. Physically, they would be highly similar, but have different fingerprints, for example. Intelligence is theorized to be influenced genetically, but socioeconomic class has so far been a much better predictor of applied intelligence. Bussa’s fears of multiple Carrot Tops are unwarranted.

Banning all forms of human cloning would be a detriment to fetal stem cell research, which has the potential to eliminate many human ailments and allow for replacement organs to be grown artificially and eliminate rejection risks. To deny those with need for replacement organs is to devalue their life compared to that of a zygote.

To imply that a cluster of cells has the same moral weight and societal significance as a human organism is irresponsible. The line must be drawn higher up, or else anyone who has ever intentionally caused any single diploid human cell to die has destroyed a life form carrying all the information needed to complete a human being. By Bussa’s definition of human life and even in his own example, anyone who has ever stubbed his toe is a murderer.

He asks if we discriminate based on age or normalcy, and uses an example of a four-year-old being discriminated against compared to an 18-year-old. Bussa acts as if this idea is preposterous, yet fails to notice that we in fact do discriminate based on age and normalcy. Drivers must be 16 and meet vision requirements. One must be 21 to purchase alcohol. Age discrimination both in the eyes of the law and morality is the social norm. A zygote is not a citizen, but it can be used to save and improve the lives of all citizens instead of merely being wasted, as a legal example, in abortion clinics.

Various subcultures, such as the Amish, avoid certain technologies, and this remains Bussa’s choice. Forcing luddism and suffering onto us all for the benefit of a handful of cells using law is irresponsible.

Jared Wilcoxjunior in microbiology