Human Cloning: Playing God or Scientific Progress?

Lester, Lane P.,Hefley, James C.

ISBN 10: 0800756681 / ISBN 13: 9780800756680

Published by Fleming H Revell Co, 1998

About this Item

This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear . It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket. This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear . It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket.

Seller Inventory # mon0001116474

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Human Cloning: Playing God or Scientific Progress?
• Publisher: Fleming H Revell Co
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0800756681
• ISBN 13: 9780800756680
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Acceptable

About this title

Synopsis

Book by Lester, Lane P., Hefley, James C.

Reviews

Lester, professor of biology at Emmanuel College (Ga.), and Hefley, author of more than 70 books, present their views on the scientific benefits and ethical questions raised by human cloning. The authors open the book with an overview of the history of cloning, from the cloning of frogs from asexual tadpole cells in 1952 to the more recent cloning of the Dolly the sheep by Scottish scientists. Lester and Hefley explain the biological method of cloning, and they make the radical prediction that the process of cloning will in the future replace conception through human sexual intercourse. The authors argue that humanity is created in God's image and that the creation of humans by God is part of God's design for humanity. Human cloning would then, argue the authors, be playing God. In addition to cloning, Lester and Hefley discuss other reproductive technologies like artificial insemination, genetic testing and scientific breeding. In a final chapter, they contend that scientists can be categorized either as mechanists, theists or agnostics. Theistic scientists, according to this taxonomy, argue that God created the world from design and teach by word and example that life is sacred and God's plan for the world has a purpose. Unfortunately, this book has such a narrow perspective that it will appeal only to those who are already convinced that human cloning is synonymous with playing God.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Would you vote to admit a human clone to membership in your church? Lester and Hefley pose that and many other questions in this conservative evangelical consideration of cloning. The Bible may not answer every question that might come up, they say, but it provides the framework within which all questions can be answered. They then address the ramifications of human cloning and of the attitudes and philosophies that have brought us to it. Their destruction of the "It takes a village to raise a child" concept deserves considerable thought: Where does that approach leave loving parents, and how close are we to being required to get a license to have a child? Abortion is generally wrong, they conclude, but while in vitro fertilization is okay, artificial insemination by donor is, they find, essentially adultery. They see genetic testing and scientific breeding raising far more problems than they solve. Meanwhile, their answer to the question of church membership for clones may surprise some readers. William Beatty