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Cloning is ethically wrong vis à vis the children produced because children have a right to their own unique ticket in the great genetic lottery of the passing on of life; a right not to be intentionally created as a copy of someone else; a right not to be designed by another human; and a right not to be placed at serious risk of illness, disability and premature death. Cloning transgresses all of these rights.
Margaret Somerville in "Biotechnology and the Human Spirit: Facing the unprecedented challenge of reprogenetics"
I have come to believe that society would do better to be less predictive and more reactive when it comes to applying morals and ethics. In essence, the technological change should happen before we get too deeply involved in trying to determine the rights and wrongs of it. Not only might potentially toxic ethical issues simply dissolve by the advent of new processes, but when a new technology is actually in place its benefits and losses can be better and more sensibly understood.
Stephen Strauss in "Biological Alchemy: Morally troubling developments may be scientifically impossible"
If I could reduce, without risky and intrusive treatment, the challenges my son faces as a result of his having Down syndrome, I wouldn't think twice. It has been my life's mission to facilitate the best life possible for Russell and I work on it every day through advocacy and education. However, erasing Down syndrome from Russell -- removing all characteristics belonging to Down syndrome but not to Russell -- is impossible. He is a whole person, not a sum of his parts. How do you separate his goofy personality and his huge capacity for love from his terrifying complete lack of fear of strangers?
Clare Ferguson in "A Mother's Reflection on Perfection: Down syndrome and society's misguided priorities"
One of the principal litmus tests for any scientific procedure is "Will it enhance human dignity?" The most common Christian argument against cloning is that it violates the intrinsic, unique and infinite value of each human life, and as such is a desecration of human dignity.
Heather Eaton in "For Christians, Human Dignity Is Central"
A clone will not be identical to the one it is cloned from. People are unique individuals, and just as identical twins -- two people with identical genetic codes -- are two different people, so too a human who is cloned would be a unique individual, with a special identity. For that reason, a clone of Einstein would not be an Einstein, and a clone of Hitler might be a nice person. Nature and Nurture work together in mysterious ways. This is precisely the notion of tzelem elokim, the image of God, found in the beginning of the Bible's recounting of the creation of the world. In the Jewish tradition, playing God is a good thing.
Michael J. Broyde in "In Judaism, Playing God Is Good"
Overreaction on the part of religious communities, partly based on science fiction images, has resulted in some preemptive ethical strikes against the science of cloning. To outlaw research and the quest for human knowledge -- all of which is subject to dual use in the service of both righteous and evil causes -- is to ensure that illicit ways to circumvent the ban will prevail. Cloning for biomedical research and cloning to produce children must be given the same privilege and freedom of experimentation that all forms of knowledge enjoy.
Ebrahim Moosa in "Muslims Ask: Does Cloning Distort Creation?"
Both the media and many clinicians and ethicists make the common error of stating that sex selection "for medical reasons" can prevent disease, and thus imply that the procedure is uncontroversial. In reality these techniques are being carried out on what almost all scientists agree is an already-existing individual human organism with a unique genetic identity, regardless of disputes about the "personhood" of the embryo or fetus. In addition, treating disease and eliminating diseased individuals are two entirely different pursuits. Advocates for the disabled often point out, rightly, that this practice implies the unworthiness of a life with a disability or debilitating disease.
Selena Ewing in "Making Necessary Distinctions: Sex selection and sex identification are two different acts"
By the mid-1980s, sex-detection clinics had mushroomed all over India and places that lacked such basic amenities as potable water and electricity had prenatal sex-detection clinics. Rural health centres with no facility to test sputum for tuberculosis or proper storage facilities for oral polio vaccines sent amniotic fluid samples on ice packs to the nearest towns for sex-detection tests.
Navsharan Singh and Shree Mulay in "India's Missing Girls: Male preference and the growing gender imbalance"
Ask any woman who has had difficulty getting pregnant and is on bed rest for most of her pregnancy to safeguard the health of her baby. At that point what seems really important is being able to deliver a healthy baby; the gender of the child is a superficial concern.
Jasmine Cooper in "Seven Perspectives on Sex Selection"
Whatever the expectations for one's child, the act of parenting reveals quickly that their likes and dislikes, ambitions, probably even sexuality can be neither controlled nor predicted. Parents discover too that their will can not be imposed easily, and sometimes not at all. Instead of a feeling of powerlessness, quite the opposite ought to happen. Such revelations and discoveries also engender humility, soften arrogance. As a consequence, both parent and child grow better able to question preconceptions and be open-minded, be flexible and adapt in the face of life's inevitable ups and downs. Give me difference from day one.
Denise Chong in "Seven Perspectives on Sex Selection"
The collective experience of humanity tells us that we can no longer afford a scientific ethic that disregards the social consequences of research. Many of the consequences are just too scary. Use of the atomic bomb is a case in point. Human cloning and stem cell research are the latest issues begging for societal input not from the point of view of a "return on investment" but as spiritual and ethical considerations. Selection of a child's sex violates all norms of ethical and spiritual values and conduct, and is an excellent example of consumerism gone berserk.
Manjit Singh in "Seven Perspectives on Sex Selection"
In the West, we think of each human life as solid and discrete, beginning at conception and ending at death. The Buddhist view is of waves appearing and disappearing endlessly on a great ocean of life energy. When cause and effect combine in a certain way, a wave arises, appearing to us as an individual whom we can see and touch and love. When death occurs and it disappears from our view, we mourn our loss. If we could see clearly that it has only rejoined that ground of being and nonbeing from which it emerged, that it has indeed returned home, we would find great comfort.
Jan Chozen Bays in "Jizo Bodhisattva: Protector of little ones"