KLONIRATI LJUDE
HUMAN CLONING

Summary/Abstract: The author of this paper develops a position in which human cloning is a violation of human dignity, even when the purpose of cloning is not so obviously instrument as the production of a clone for the purposes of organ donation. If cloning were ever to become a really popular means of human reproduction, it would raise the question of the impact of the practice on human diversity. To strengthen his arguments against cloning, the author suggests the concept of a moral image of the world, or of the family. A moral image is not a declaration that this or that is virtuous or right; rather, it is an image of how our virtues and ideals fit together, and what they have to do with the position in which we find ourselves. Above all, if our image should be a moral one at all, in the author’s view it should be in line with the Kantian maxim. In an ideal family, its members respect one another as “ends in themselves,” as human beings whose aspirations and happiness are important in their own right, not as something intended to satisfy their parents’ (or anyone else’s) wishes. Furthermore, this image should be inspired by the Kantian moral image that accords unique value to our faculty of reflecting for ourselves on moral issues. The author concludes that in accordance with such an image, the unpredictability and diversity of future generations is of intrinsic value, and that a moral image of the family that reflects this is in accordance with the moral images of society that lie at the very basis of our democratic aspirations.

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