Speaking of Faith: A Theological Perspective on Cloning

Broadcast on May 20, 2004

In 1998, a sheep named Dolly made history: she was the world's first cloned mammal. After Dolly, the birth of a human clone seemed inevitable, though most scientists close to the field will insist that the safe cloning of a human being remains a distant possibility.

Why does the idea of human cloning both fascinate and repulse, and what religious questions does it raise for our common life? Host Krista Tippett explores one thought-provoking perspective of Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist and scholar of the Jewish Talmud and ancient rabbinic texts.

Much of the focus in our public life is on the use of cloned human embryos for biomedical research. But that is not our topic for this program. We consider cloning for the purposes of producing offspring. Some dream that this technology might make it possible to preserve the DNA of a beloved child or adult who has died, in a sense bringing them back to life. Our guest says that religious ethicists have missed a remarkable chance to frame the cloning debate because religious ethicists began their answers in the wrong place. She suggests that cloning is not really about life and birth at all, but about our inability to accept death.

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Speaking of Faith