KU scientific ethicists not surprised by news of human cloning attempt

Two Kansas University experts on scientific ethics agreed Friday that cloning of a human being would happen — if it hasn’t already — but disagreed on whether it should.

Mary Faith Marshall, professor of medicine and bioethics at KU Medical Center, and Don Marquis, a philosophy professor at KU, reacted to reports that a company linked to a sect that believes space aliens created life on Earth had produced the world’s first human clone, a 7-pound girl named Eve.

The company — Clonaid — announced the cloning Friday.

Even if the claim proves false, Marshall said it was just a matter of time before someone produced a human clone.

But she said the reasons to try to clone a human at this point were dubious at best.

“We haven’t gotten it right in animals yet,” said Marshall, past president of the American Association for Bioethics and Humanities. “We probably should wait until we learn more about the basic biology of it.”

While the news may seem bizarre, Marshall said that, from a scientific view, cloning a human was not an important step.

She also questioned the motives of those who would want to clone a human.

“Even if this worked, and this child has the mother’s DNA and is genetically identical, that child is not going to be a replica. You can’t get copycats,” she said.

Marquis, who teaches medical ethics, said he had concerns about the safety of such a procedure because research has shown cloned mammals age more quickly.

But he dismissed arguments that cloning was “tampering with life.”

“We tamper with life in lots of different ways,” he said, such as in-vitro fertilization.

The motivations of the parents who want a cloned child also shouldn’t be a reason to ban cloning, he said.

“People have children sometimes for some pretty strange reasons, like they got drunk one night and didn’t use birth control. So why should we question this?” he said.

Most people prefer to have children who are genetically related, he said.

“This is just a closer biological relationship,” Marquis said.