Perfectible Bodies

13: A Threatening Offer: Perfectible Bodies

Three different cloning practices and possible reasons to “accept” cloning

  1. Babies for life. One can imagine reasons where this would be desirable.
  2. Organs for Medical Use. This kind of use is common in research.
  3. Embryos for Research. Stem cell generation and the promise of disease cure.

Reasons to block cloning.

Deontological Objections to Cloning. Objections related to the process itself.

  1. Dignity. Cloning treats human as objects, rather than subjects.
  2. Choice. A cloned embryo has no choice.
  3. Resources. The uses of resources could be better used to solve other problems.

Consequential Objections to Cloning. Objections related to the consequences of cloning.

  1. Psychology. How would clones be treated.
  2. Physiology. Would clones have physiology issues?
  3. The family. There would be impacts on the family, perhaps fundamental changes.
  4. Master race. Sinister motives for cloning are not hard to imagine.

Questioning Givens. Two examples of how different assumptions lead to two very different outcomes. Both sides of the cloning debate have different assumptions than lead to different conclusions.

Assessing Status. Cloning is a rival church—a heresy. Economically, is it drive by a profit motive?

Reincorporating the Lost. The bio-tech revolution will not focus on the weak, but making the strong  stronger. This is not the kingdom of God.

Incorporating Gifts. “The issue becomes one of sovereignty. The challenge to the Christian imagination is not whether it can condone cloning, but whether Christians genuinely uphold the belief embodied in baptism, namely, that the body of Christ is their true body. Do Christians really believe in the sovereignty and wisdom of the God who rules through the broken and risen body of Christ, or do they secretly think that the information in their genes is master after all?”

Forming Habits. “The church can only have something to say on an issue such as this if it places it within the context of its entire perception of God’s plan for human salvation and the practices that accord with the character of God revealed in that plan. To put it another way, Christian ethics is about learning to imitate God, not about keeping one’s nose clean; about being transformed, not trouble-free.” The churches response to cloning is more about its practices than its arguments. In particular 2 practices:

  1. Welcoming the stranger. We are called to imitate Christ and all that means for welcoming strangers.
  2. The church and suffering. “But the truth is that suffering and death cannot be legislated or researched away. What is needed is a company of friends who will care even when they cannot cure, a communion of saints whose membership is stronger than death, and a savior whose presence and promises of redemption abide despite the eventide. Cloning offers none of these: indeed it undermines each of them by treating the body as an isolated organism. But each of these is available in humble faith through the grace of Christ and the ministry of the church, and they come through baptism.”



Excerpt From: Samuel Wells. “Improvisation.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/improvisation/id473939687?mt=11


Excerpt From: Samuel Wells. “Improvisation.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/improvisation/id473939687?mt=11


Charles Eklund 2018