Human Cloning: A Fruit of the Contraceptive Mentality
By Joseph LoJacono
The report claiming a South Korean group of scientists have successfully cloned a human
being should not surprise Catholics. Catholics rooted in the Faith could see this dire event
coming when the world chose to separate sex from procreation. Reverend Paul Marx, O.S.B.,
Ph.D., following the constant teaching of the Church,
1 would often say that separating
procreation from the marital act leads to all sorts of evils, such as: abortion, condoning
homosexual lifestyles, in-vitro fertilization and now human cloning.
2 A society’s acceptance
of these evils hinges on their acceptance or rejection of birth control.
The moral evaluation of human cloning is not that complex. There are two methods
commonly used for cloning. The first method involves splitting the cells of an embryo at a
very early stage of development creating two or more clones. The second, called “cell nuclear
replacement” or “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” involves removing the nucleus from an
unfertilized female egg and replacing it with the DNA of another donor. The donor then
becomes the genetic twin of the new clone.
3 The Catholic Church objects to both procedures
because they separate procreation from the marital act. A cloned child is not begotten through
the loving act of marriage, but becomes a product of science.
Scientists today have long accepted artificial contraception as proper means to control
fertility. They have given into the
contraceptive mentality. Once someone accepts that science
has lawful authority over when and how to have a child, then it is not much of a leap to a
belief that the child himself is only the product of science. Man then becomes a “god” who
chooses when a person is produced and which of his “creations” is allowed to live a full life.
Human cloning is the natural result of this line of thinking.
To prevent human cloning we must root out the contraceptive mentality. The Church has
always been the defender of Natural Law.
4 In her prophetic stance against birth control, She
foresaw the evil results that would come from accepting it. The Church does not preach
against birth control simply by asserting the authority of the Faith. She seeks to call to man’s
mind the natural order of creation.
5 The best way to insure human cloning will not dominate
our world is to preach that it is not man who is charge of deciding who comes into existence,
but God. He is the one who allows us to participate in creating a new person. When we
subvert His order, we suffer the consequences.
1
To learn more about Church teaching on these subjects, read the following: Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii: AAS
22 (1930), p. 560; Pope Pius XII, “Allocution to the Congress of the Italian Catholic Union of Midwives,” AAS
43 (1951), p. 843; Pope Paul VI’s encyclical
Humanae Vitae: 11 (1968); The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
(Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Second Edition 1997) paragraph 2366.
2
Fr. Marx proclaimed this in several of his talks. One example is from his talk “Love, Life and the Family” given
at the 16th HLI world conference April 16-20th 1997, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
3
Eamonn Keane, The Brave New World of Therapeutic Cloning, (Front Royal, VA; Human Life International
Press, Second edition 2001), p. 9. This book is a great resource detailing the horror of human cloning.
4
Humanae Vitae, n. 4.
5
Humanae Vitae, n. 11-17.
Human Life International Inc.
® © 2004
