Cloning
3rd October 2004

Cloning, and human cloning at that has been out rightly been rejected as immoral and unethical by many groups and a sin in Islam. I haven't researched much into the subject but from what I have gathered, human cloning is of three types. 1) Embryo cloning, 2) Adult DNA cloning (a.k.a. reproductive cloning) and 3) Therapeutic cloning (a.k.a. biomedical cloning). There are some very disturbing questions about all three of the cloning techniques and its possible uses, however I am of the opinion that if Therapeutic cloning can be restricted to just production of organs to maintain human life, the nature of the development is medical and hence not savage. Genetic engineering is looked down upon only because of the idea that it can alter human form and the fact that the technique is not mastered and can give birth to adverse side effects. Cloning is not genetic engineering, in the sense that it involves making of a biological system on its own. It is simply a process like a catalyst which assists in achieving the desired result. This seems to be simply a better technique with better survival chances than a transplant from another human.

Muslim scholars give reference to the quote in Quran which states that God is the best of creators. Cloning is deemed to be synonym to creating and thus the concept is akin to shirk... Cloning I believe is not creation. Cloning is simply direction by way of how the embryo is split. A process recorded since decades and now simply being induced. A creator is simply some one who makes something from the scratch.

Links:
Islamic Perspectives
Religious Tolerance
Doe Genomes
BBC Q&A
Paper on cloning ethics