Break the Cloning Deadlock

After a year of intense debate, the US Senate is set to vote on human cloning. The two constituencies most actively engaged – biomedical scientists and religious conservatives – have battled each other to a deadlock. None of the bills now before the Senate appear likely to pass.

Is there a way to break this deadlock? Yes, but it will require of both sides a realization of what is at stake and a willingness to compromise.

Opposition to cloning of humans is nearly universal. Although some say that creating a cloned child should be allowed for infertile couples, the number of couples for whom cloning would be the only means to have a child is very small, and once cloning was perfected and permitted for one group it would be all but impossible to contain. People intuitively understand that creating a child by cloning would be an affront to human dignity and individuality, would serve no good purpose, and should be banned.

But what about using cloning techniques to create embryos for medical research, rather than to create a child...