Preventing a Brave New World by Leon Kass - Essay Example

?In "Preventing a Brave New World" Leon Kass concludes that reproductive and therapeutic cloning of human embryos is unethical. What are the exact steps in Kass's argument for this conclusion? What is your assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this argument? In the work “Preventing a Brave New World” by Leon Kass, the author argues against the cloning of the human being. He finds it unethical and immoral. Kass argues on the ethical grounds and he exposes the reader to the adverse impact of the cloning system. He points out that “revulsion” (Kass, 2001) is not the basis of his argument as he points out that “repugnance” (Kass, 2001) of the past is silently accepted in the present. He moreover observes that disgust is not something that is emotional and hence he is not being emotional when he criticizes the cloning of the human embryos but it is a deep thought into the matter makes him talk against the mechanism. He compares cloning with the incest relationships and other unethical activities like disfigurement of corpse or feeding on human flesh. Kass observes that as murder, rape or bestiality cannot be ethically justified, in the same manner reproductive and therapeutic cloning of human embryos stands unjustified on the ground of ethics. Kass (2001), in his composition, says that cloning is resisted not only because it is strange to take up something like this but because he “intuit” that it is not novel and cloning for him is the violation of things that he dearly holds. In the book he criticizes cloning on the grounds of unethical experimentation, threatening the identity of human being and his or her individuality, transforming the essence of procreation into manufacturing. He also argues against it on the ground of despotism that it heralds on the children, thereby becoming the harbinger of parenthood perversion. He makes sure he is not misinterpreted when he is arguing against cloning. He points out that he is against the creation of reproductive cloning and not against the cloning that is used for the research work (Kass, 2001). On ethical grounds Kass argues that the cloning experiment has an adverse and unethical effect on the child to be born. Its not that they would be only affected adversely on the ethical grounds there can serious dangers to their life, as the experiment of cloning has failed mostly among the animals. Incidents of fetal deaths and the deaths of the stillborn infants cannot be avoided in the process of cloning. He also points out that the so called proclaimed successes are actually failure. It has also been revealed very recently that there remains a high chance of disability and deformity among the cloned animals that lives after birth. He justifies his argument by citing examples of clone crows which has heart and lungs problems and cloned mice which develops pathological obesity later on in its life span. It has been also observed that a cloned animal fails in attaining normal development milestones. Though he argues on the ethical grounds of relationships and the associated problem that would arise from cloning he actually argues on a strong scientific and logical terms. His argument against cloning stands justified on the basis of the facts and figures that have been provided by him (Kass, 2001). He also puts forward an argument on the basis of identity and individuality crisis. It will be like a dilemma for the person who has been cloned, as not only will he have concerns about his distinguishing characteristics but also that he will have an identical appearance as his father or mother. This would lead to serious identity crisis. He indicates the adverse effect that a homey case can have if engaged in infra familial cloning. Cloning of the husband and the wife gives birth to a twin parent child relation. Eventually no parent will be competent to take care of the clone of himself or herself as one treats his or her own child. This creates a series of perplexity in the relationship, the way they are perceived. Like if the daughter is the clone of the mother, it really becomes difficult for the father and the daughter, as the face of the daughter reminds the father of the woman with whom he had fell in love. And when the divorces comes a pertinent question that arises is will the spouse be able to love their cloned off springs as they cannot stand each other. The faces of the children will always make them remember of the person whom he or she hates and that would bring a mental turmoil for both the parents and the children. Kass argues that the decision of cloning is one sided and nobody cares about what the child will think about it (Kass, 2001). Kass points out in his argument that human cloning is that giant step that has been taken forward in the “transformation of begetting into making” (Kass, 2001). The very essence of the procreation gets changed into the manufacturing where in general terms human beings are able to hand make their off springs. It gives rises to a situation of tailor made products where one even gets the child made according to his or her own sweet wish. Kass makes it clear that he is not simply arguing on the basis of “nature knows best” (Kass, 2001). He points on the fact that the child whose features and characteristics exists as per the human design does not necessarily stands on the same surface as its creators. He compares cloned child with manufactured products by saying as the products have attributes that are more perfect than the original ones, the child will also be expected to par-excellent. He observes that the desired product can be perfect and more efficient but that is more of artifacts than human. Finally he ends up his argument by saying that the cloning of human being will result in the aggravation of insightful misapprehensions as there would be a incomprehension in the parent child relationships. When a child is pro created the parents gets ready to accept whatever the child turns out to be, but when it is tailor made and designed the expectation soars high and the acceptance changes accordingly (Kass, 2001). Conclusion Kass strongly argues against the cloning of the human embryos and provides factual evidence against it. His arguments are justified on strong ethical grounds. Again, the argument that has been stated in the work of Kass is not based on the non acceptance of the modern technology by the prior generation. He bases his arguments on the scientific and social adversities that the process of cloning will result into. He bases his arguments on ethical grounds but puts a logical explanation to it when he talks about the incidence of identity crisis and relationships confusion that people will undergo as a result of cloning. References 1. Kass, L. (2001), “Preventing a Brave new world”, retrieved on June 20, 2011, from: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A7k16m1TTbkJ:www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/BanCloning.doc+preventing+a+brave+new+world&hl=en&gl=in Read More