Sacred Identity

3 Pages 768 Words

Sacred Identity

“Can you imagine a whole basketball team of Jordans?” says Elshtain, “what about having forty Mozarts in this world?” (Nussbaum and Sunstein 181) These are just a few concerns that come to mind when cloning is the topic. Others may feel that it is a far- fetched idea and that the government should ban cloning. However, cloning is very possible and is not only seen in the movies. In the essays, “To clone or Not to Clone, by Jean Bethke Elshtain, and “Perspective on cloning” by Daniel Callahan, these topics do indeed arise.
One could compare and contrast the essays in terms of the authors’ views on cloning. In “To Clone or Not to Clone,” which is in the book Clones and Clones, Jean Bethke Elshtain does not believe cloning should be allowed. Elshtain does not understand why people would want to go through the whole cloning process. For example, what would one say to a child who is the replica of a deceased child? “What happens when the child learns they are the pinch hitter?” she says. Jean continues to say, “There was an earlier Tommy, much loved, so mommy and daddy had a copy made.” (Nussbaum and Sunstein 184) How would one explain that to a child? In this essay, she continues to argue that if everyone had a clone there would be no originality in the world. No one would have his or her own identity and therefore all the great people in the world would go unnoticed. “We will put the genie back into the bottle for a change,” she added. (Nussbaum and Sunstein 185)
An essay written in the L.A. Times, called a “Perspective on cloning,” by Callahan, also brought up some of the same topics. Callahan had many different views on this topic. He believes that they should not ban cloning because it can be good to us in the near
future. He feels that a ban could not be enforced due to underground laboratories that would be set up instead of being done in hospitals. Cloning, to him, wou...