Genetic Engineering in Man: Ethical Considerations

Abstract

Physicians, scientists, philosophers, theologians are astir with thoughts and pronouncements on genetic engineering, especially with growth of a fertilized ovum in vitro (already achieved¹) and with cloning (substitution of the nucleus of a cell from another being for the nucleus of an unfertilized egg of a being of the same species). The first, the "test-tube baby," implies the possibility that the conceptus at some stage of development might be implanted into the uterus of a woman otherwise unable to conceive and deliver a child. Cloning, already shown to be successful in frogs, if applied to humans could (discounting the effects of environmental influences) "... result in the development of individuals... identical to whatever donor individuals had been chosen: boys genetically exactly like the father, girls like the mother, or individuals like some true or false hero of art, science, or sports, or like some demagogue or some saint..."²Although