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.