Surrogacy and Cloning By: Liz Dove, Ebony Staples, Taylor Cavette, Cassandra Johnson, Megan Canny, & Cassandra Kimberly
Dec 31, 2015
Surrogacy and Cloning
By: Liz Dove, Ebony Staples, Taylor Cavette, Cassandra Johnson, Megan
Canny, & Cassandra Kimberly
Surrogacy
• Definition: woman who gestates a fetus for others, usually for a couple or another woman
– Traditional surrogacy
– Gestational surrogacy
Purdy’s Stance on Surrogacy
• Laura Purdy’s approach to surrogacy:– Pros:
• Infertility• Health risks• Disease prevention• Non-traditional families
– Cons:• Baby-selling• Potential for coercion
Rothman’s Stance on Surrogacy
• Paid surrogacy is baby-selling
• Children are not for sale
• Fetus is part of the maternal body
Surrogacy – Interesting Fact
• Traditional Surrogacy Fees– $40,000 - $65,000
• Gestational Surrogacy Fees– $75,000 - $100,000
Surrogacy – Major Moral Theories
• Utilitarian• Rule-Utilitarian• Kantian• Natural Law Theory
Surrogacy vs. Adoption
• Surrogacy-– Genetic relation to child– Usually cheaper
• Adoption– No genetic relation to child– Usually more expensive– More difficult to adopt due to scarcity of children
Case of Mary Beth Whitehead
• Over 20 years ago Whitehead was a surrogate mother for William and Elizabeth Sterns.
• After the birth on March 27, 1986, Whitehead would not give the baby to the Stern’s and left the state with the infant.
Cloning
• Definition: the asexual production of a genetically identical entity from an existing one– Important to understand a clone is not a perfect
copy of an individual– Instead, a clone is a living thing that shares a set of
genetic instructions with another– Video
Cloning
• Reproductive cloning– Creating a genetic duplicate of an adult animal or
human– 1997 an adult sheep was cloned, which resulted in
the birth of “Dolly”
The National Academy of Science’s Stance on Cloning
• Clones, although identical will not be identical physically or characteristically
• Clones experience different environments and nutritional inputs in utero
• Different contributions made to each “twin”
David Brock’s Stance on Cloning
• The right to ignorance is not violated by cloning technology
• The “twin” will still have an open future
Cloning – Pros
PROS• Solves problem of having a child with a
genetic connection• Eliminates transfer of genetic disease or health
risk• Eliminates shortage of organ donations or non-
matching organ tissue types
Cloning- Cons
CONS• Violates the right to a unique identity for the
resulting clone• Violates right to an open future• Unnatural and replaces natural procreation
with the artificial manufacture of children• Higher number of birth defects
Cloning – Major Moral Theories
• Utilitarian
- Good verses bad consequences for everyone involved
-Cloning is morally admissible
-Rule Utilitarian’s view
-My View’s on Cloning
Cloning-Major Moral Theories
• Kantian Deontology
-Kant states, “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own words or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.”
-It is possible by this theory to oppose or defend cloning.
Cloning-Major Moral Theories
• Natural Law Theory-Moral standards discerned in nature through human
reason
-Doctrine of Double Effect
-Backed by Roman Catholic Church
-Morally impermissible
Cloning: The Case Study
What happened to Dolly?
Bringing home the bacon…
literally?
Conclusion
Cloning- Major Moral Theories
-Utilitarian
-Kantian Deontology
-Natural Law Theory
References
Adoption.com. (2010). Surrogacy. Retrieved from http://adopting.adoption.com/child/surrogacy.html
Discovery Networks. (2009 April 29). Human cloning [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tbxN5uwaqA
JNJ Health. (2009, December 7). Gestational surrogacy [Video file].
Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VcxbAgrWMc&feature=related
U.S. Department of Energy Genome Program. (2010). Cloning Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml
Vaughn, L. (2010). Bioethics: Principles, issues, and cases. New York, NY: Oxford.