Bharati Law Review, Jan.

– March, 2017 70

Human Cloning: Perspectives, Ethical Issues and Legal

Implications
Adv. Rakesh Vishan 
Ms. Swati Vishan

Abstract
The prospect of cloning animals and Homo sapiens and the ethical
and legal implication of such astounding development remained
remote and unexplored until recently. People have diverse and
strongly held opinions regarding the morality of cloning humans.
The ethical aspects of cloning depend upon our perspectives about
its process. Different religions have different attitudes towards
cloning and within each faith there is diversity of opinion. Ethical
arguments are based on more general guidelines for behavior that
do not stem from any particular religion. Ethics usually vary more
by culture than by religion. In general, society does not disagree
on what is ethically wrong; rather society disagrees on how to
weigh different ethical considerations. There is no consensus on
the morality of human cloning, even within particular religious
traditions. The development of law in this regard might be a mere
speculation now, but those who promote human cloning, have to
show and establish with evidence how they are going to deal with
different situations, which pose a problem as a consequence of
human cloning.
Keywords: Human cloning, homo sapiens, legal implication,
religion.
Introduction
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an
existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual. The
term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning; human
clones in the form of identical twins are commonplace, with their
cloning occurring during the natural process of reproduction. The
word "clone" derives from the Greek term Klon, meaning, "sprout"
or "twig". Each person is unique by virtue of his unique genetic
make-up barring naturally occurring identical twins. In 1997,
there was much notoriety surrounding the cloning of Dolly, the
Sheep in Scotland. This leads many people to believe that the


Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Delhi.

Student, 3rd Year, Galgotia University, Noida.

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Bharati Law Review, Jan. – March, 2017 71

same technology could be applied to clone human beings1.

Mammalian cloning, through somatic-cell nuclear transfer
process, has resulted in the birth of hundreds of organisms to
date2 Three decade ago cloning attacked public attention in
England. The scientists used the technique of nuclear
transplantation after successful asexual production to produce a
clutch of tadpole clones. Joshua Lederberg, a Noble Laureate
geneticist and a man of large vision is responsible for bringing the
chances and promise of human cloning to public attention. The
most common objection to cloning humans is that the current
technology is unsafe. The animal clones that have survived after
birth have a high chance of dying from heart and blood vessel
problems, malformed arteries, diabetes, immune system
deficiencies and physical deformities. There is no reason to
believe that the outcome of attempted human cloning will be any
different3. By undertaking asexual reproduction, the gene pool will
by narrowed and humanity's ability to overcome disease will be
constrained. As such, motives for human cloning are based on
increasing personal notoriety rather than the greater good4.
Cloning represents an unprecedented control over the genetic
make-up of another individual. Indeed, this concept of control
over the genetic makeup of successive generations is evocative of
practice of eugenics, science of altering human evolution so as to
encourage desirable traits and discourage undesirable ones,
which was rejected by the world community after the Second
World War5. Cloning is said to breach a fundamental right to
individuality. Uniqueness of identity and individuality are some of
the most deep- felt and inherent signifiers of self. Just as a great
artwork would lose its value in identical reproduction, so human
beings can be said to lose their intrinsic inimitability in
reproductions of themselves6. Cloning cannot be undone. We
cannot destroy our mistakes or purge the world of any baby born
via means we disagree with. Political and academic ostracization
and even expelling of the cloners from the International Infertility
Association would do little to deter them from their objectives.
What we need is an unambiguous international law on human

1 Wilmut I., Schnieke, A.E., Mcwhir, J. et al. Viable offspring derived from fetal
and adult mammalian cells. Nature. 1997; 385; 810-13.
2 Cambell, K.H.S., Mcwhir, J., Ritchie, W.A. et al. Sheep cloned by nuclear
transfer from a cultured cell line. Nature. 1996; 380, 64-6.
3 Jaenisch, R., Wilmut, I. Don’t clone humans. Science Magazine. 2001; 291,
2552-54.
4 Watson, J. Moving towards the clonal man. Atlantic Monthly. 1971; 227; 50-3.
5 Kelves, D,J. Eugenics and human rights. BMJ. 1999; 319, 435-38.
6 Gogarty, B. What exactly is an exact copy? And why it matters when trying to
ban human reproductive cloning in Australia. J Med. Ethics. 2003; 29; 84-89.

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Bharati Law Review, Jan. – March, 2017 72

cloning. Till date, cloning laws and policies are far from uniform
across the globe and the legal position in some countries remain
uncertain. The Indian council of Medical Research has declared
that research on cloning with intent to produce an identical
human being, as of today, is prohibited but has not declared
therapeutic cloning to be so prohibited7. Some scientists might
take an undue advantage by creating an embryo for the purpose
of obtaining stem cells, which could be used for a number of
degenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's
disease etc. Ultimately, it raises the moral status of an embryo, if
any. A recommendation in favor of this idea was publically
rejected by President Clinton in December 19948.
Types of Cloning
There are basically two types of cloning:
 Reproductive cloning
 Therapeutic cloning
Reproductive cloning: The cloning technology involved in
generating a living being that has the same nuclear DNA as
another already existing organism is called as reproductive
cloning. This type of cloning uses the process called somatic cell
transfer. This process makes the process of genetic material from
the nucleus of a donor cell to an egg cell possible. The process, in
fact removes the nucleus from the egg cell so that all the genetic
material present in that egg is separated. After that the genetic
material present in the donor cell is inserted into it. After the
stimulation and once the cell division starts, the clone embryo is
placed in the uterus of a female.
Human cloning: Scientists have been cloning elementary
substances such as genes and cells for so many years. Today,
more routine biological research and many important
pharmaceutical applications depend on that sort of cloning, which
involves many ethical dilemmas presented by the cloning of
human beings. The creation of human life by human has led to
the continuing erosion of respect for the mystery of procreation of
human beings. The men or women on the street and the
intellectuals, theist and atheist, humanists and scientists all
consider human cloning to be “offensive, grotesque, revolting,
repugnant and repulsive.” The ethical aspects involved in the

7 Indian Council of Medical Research. Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical

Research on Human Subject. 2000; New Delhi, p. 48.
8 Schwartz, J., Devory A. Clinton to ban US funds for some embryo studies.
Washington Post.1994; 3 December.

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Bharati Law Review, Jan. – March, 2017 73

process of human cloning make people develop a repulsive

attitude towards it. A large number of look like clones,
compromised in their individuality and the combination of father-
son or mother-daughter twins and a woman being able to give
birth to and rearing a genetic copy of herself, her spouse or her
deceased father, disturbs the whole fabric of the society. In view of
the recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research,
there seems probably nothing to prevent the process of human
cloning from happening and this makes people more revolting and
rethinking. Ethical values seem the only voice left that speaks up
to defend the central core of our humanity. More so, when
everything is held to be permissible so long it is freely done, in
which our given human nature no longer commands respect, in
which our bodies are regarded as mere instruments of our
autonomous rational wills. Ethical view of human cloning should
be evaluated by how people criticize it descriptively, through the
situation into which we place it.
Legal approaches to cloning
International attempts to harmonize policies in the area of
biomedical ethics and human research, such as the 1997 Council
of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, and
most recently, the United Nations' efforts to adopt an international
convention against human reproductive cloning, have been
insufficient to trigger a substantial global policy design process on
issues relating to these new technologies. While global consensus
exists in favour of banning human reproductive cloning, lack of
consensus among countries regarding policy approaches to other
technologies, such as research or "therapeutic" cloning research,
have undermined efforts to develop any international regulatory
framework, thereby fragmenting policy action across issues and
borders. This inability to develop a global policy response to these
technologies has fostered a global milieu where the developing
world is playing an increasingly prominent role. However, many
less developed countries with a strong science base have been
more active than the industrialized world in pursuing embryonic
stem cell research and cloning technologies and have become
influential actors in this arena9. Creating embryo specifically for

9 A recent UNESCO-IBC report has highlighted this phenomenon: "The notion of

'developed' and 'developing countries' must itself be redefined in the context of
biotechnology. Some countries, traditionally classified as developing, are
playing an active part in research on the human genome, while others are not.
Report of the IBC on Solidarity and International Cooperation between
Developed and Developing Countries Concerning the Human Genome,
UNESCO (April 6, 2001).

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Bharati Law Review, Jan. – March, 2017 74

research also puts women at risk as sources of ova for projects

that provide them no benefit10. The human fertilization and
embryology Act 1990 in U.K., contains a clear prohibition on
replacing the nucleus of an embryonic cell with a nucleus taken
from another human embryonic or adult cell. Section 3 (3) (d)
status that a licence granted under the 1990 Act "cannot
authorize replacing a nucleus of a cell of an embryo with a
nucleus taken from a cell of any person, embryo or subsequent
development of an embryo." Cell nucleus replacement (CNR), on
the other hand, is not expressly prohibited by the 1990 act; nor is
"embryo splitting", the process by which twinning occurs naturally
and which can also be done in vitro to produce identical- cloned
embryos11. So far as CNR research within the UK was concerned,
it was unregulated until 2001 when Human Reproductive Cloning
Act and Human Fertilization and Embryology (Research Purposes)
Regulations were enacted12. The Council of Europe's additional
protocol13 to the convention for the protection of human rights
and the dignity of the human being with regard to the application
of biology and medicine, on the prohibition of cloning human
beings, explicitly declares that "any intervention seeking to create
a human being genetically identical to another human being,
whether living or dead, is prohibited". Worldwide cloning is
prohibited it is allowed in in-vitro condition in laboratory only for
animal, it is yet not approved for human.
Ethical issues
Cloning of a human being to produce a child is chiefly aimed to
provide a ‘biologically related child’ to an infertile couple. Human
cloning can put an end to genetic disease otherwise generally
passed on to generations after generations. It also permits
reproduction for single individuals and to secure a genetically
identical source of organs or tissues perfectly suitable for
transplantation. There are a section of people who welcome the
idea of human cloning to produce children. They proclaim that in
the modern globalized society each individual is a master of his
own mind and has the freedom to decide as to what is right and

10 Healy, B.P., Berner, L.S. A position against federal funding for human embryo
research: words of caution for women, for science, and for society. J. Women's
Health. 1995; 4; 609- 12.
11 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990). London. HMSO, 1990.
12 Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001. London. The Stationary Office ltd.
2001.
13 Council of Europe (1997). Additional protocol to the Conventions for the
protection of human rights and the dignity of the human being with regard to
the application of biology and medicine, on the prohibition of cloning human
beings. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

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Bharati Law Review, Jan. – March, 2017 75

what is wrong for him. The United State Supreme Court in

Eisenstadt v. Baird14 spelled out a new principle relating to
reproductive freedom: “If the right to privacy means anything, it is
the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from
unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so affecting a
person as a decision whether to bear or beget a child.” Hence the
utilization of a new infertility technique falls under the
reproductive freedom. If ‘in vitro fertilization’ is accepted as a
technology to procreate, human cloning for producing children
also forms part of the advanced technology. Another moral value
argued by this section of people is that through cloning we are
able to instill certain basic necessities of the modern society. This
includes good health of the child, fulfilling the dreams of a couple
to beget a biologically related child. The ultimate goal is to achieve
a fit and healthy world: an infertile couple desperately seeking a
child; replacing a beloved spouse or child who is on the deathbed
or is dead; attempting to conquer the genetic or hereditary
disease; permitting reproduction of homosexual men and lesbians
who want nothing sexual to do with the opposite sex; getting a
child with genotype of one’s own choosing, not excluding oneself;
replicating individuals of great talent and genius; creating large
set of genetically identical humans suitable for research.
For instance, in the debate over nature versus nurture or for
special mission in peace and war in which using identical humans
would be an advantage. In India, government has officially banned
cloning of human being. The department of Biotechnology has
banned any research towards human cloning. It also lays down
specific guidelines permitting research stem cell biology with
adequate safety measures.
Conclusion
This article has concentrated on present ethical issues involved in
the process of human cloning. Nevertheless, human cloning is not
possible now. One cannot make law in vacuum. The research in
this particular area of science cannot be stopped. The meaning of
human cloning is often misunderstood. Although genes are
recognized as influencing behaviour and cognition, "genetically
identical" does not mean altogether identical because some
important genes are also present in the mitochondria of the egg-
cell. It could spell problems in stem-cell treatment for a good deal
of diseases where compatibility is essential because of the risk of
rejection. With additional experimentation on other animals we

14 Leon R. Kass and James Q. Wilson, The Ethics of Human Cloning.

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Bharati Law Review, Jan. – March, 2017 76

can enhance the accuracy of therapeutic cloning. The temptation

to manipulate another human life is almost irresistible for some
as the history is replete with practice of eugenics in some parts of
the world. The genesis of the 21st century is a period of unequaled
technological prowess combined with unparalleled moral vacuity.
In order to curb the abuse of the technology, reproductive cloning
should be banned internationally till the global community
including the scientists, ethicist and theologians finds out
answers to morality of human cloning thoroughly and
satisfactorily.

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