A Buddhist Approach to Ethical Issues of Cloning
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Chen, Syuan-You
Abstract
In this thesis, I will try to investigate the ethical issues regarding cloning in
accordance with the doctrine of Buddhism. Cloning means that to produce a duplicate
similar to a certain genetically identical individual intentionally, and can be applied to
conservation breeding, pet cloning, gene transfer, therapeutic research and assisted
reproduction etc. Among these practical applications, “therapeutic cloning” and
“reproductive cloning” respectively raise the concern of “destruction of embryos” and
“human cloning”, thereby many controversies and issues arise. These controversies
and issues are surrounding “destruction of embryos” and “cloning human”, the former
focuses on the “moral status” of embryos, and the latter on the evaluation between
“procreative right” and “the situation of the clone”.
Buddhism that endeavors to observe the world of sentient being and teach how to
achieve liberation may solve these issues in a brand-new perspective based on the
Saṃyuktāgama-Sūtra and Mahā-ratna-kūṭa-Sūtra which indicate “observing things as
they really are” and “life process oriented approach”. In addition, I will argue that
“moral status”, “right” and “personhood” would be the inappropriately used concepts
to understand the Buddhist perspective to cloning.
Cloning can not only be applied to therapeutic and reproductive uses which raise
the most concern, but also to many non-human species. For this reason, we should
take any animal involved cloning into consideration as well. From this aspect,
Buddhism as a philosophy advocating that all sentient beings are equal and the life
situation of sentient beings should be taken seriously may provide some indication to
these ethical issues.
Subjects
佛教
複製
道德地位
位格
生存權
生命倫理
Type
thesis
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