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___________________________________________________________________________ BIBLIOTHECA SACRA 159 (October–December 2002): 462–72

CLONING, STEM-CELL RESEARCH,

AND THE BIBLE
J. Kerby Anderson

THE GENETIC REVOLUTION MAY HAVE BEGUN in the twentieth century, but its impact will be felt mostly in the
twenty-first century. Meanwhile, as knowledge in genetics doubles every few years, ethical and
theological considerations often lag behind. The challenge for scientists and nonscientists and Christians
and non-Christians is to evaluate carefully the moral and theological implications of this new technology.
For the first time in human history it is possible to redesign existing organisms completely, including
humans, and to direct the genetic and reproductive constitution of every living thing. Physi-cians can also
bypass the normal process of reproduction and there-fore further direct the development of individuals.
And on the hori-zon are powerful new genetic tools for cloning and stem-cell re-search that offer great
promise but also threaten the sanctity of human life.

SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS IN CLONING

Should scientists clone a human being? This ethical debate has been going on for more than thirty years.
In 1970 Paul Ramsey de-voted an entire chapter to human cloning in his book Fabricated Man. 1 And in
the 1970s ethicists debated the pros and cons of hu-man cloning until scientists were able to convince
nearly everyone that cloning a mammal (much less a human being) would be im-possible.
All that changed when scientists in Scotland announced in 1997 that they had successfully cloned an adult
sheep. Commenta-tors were predicting that a “brave new world” was just around the
J. Kerby Anderson is President, Probe Ministries, Richardson, Texas.
1 Paul Ramsey, Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970), 60–103.
Cloning, Stem-Cell Research, and the Bible 463
corner, and ethicists began to dust off arguments that had been mothballed in the 1970s.
The cloning of the sheep called Dolly im-plied that it might eventually be possible to
clone a human being.
Dolly was significant because she was the first mammal cloned from adult cells and
because this set the stage for a serious discus-sion about cloning human beings. However,
the history of Dolly raises ethical concerns about applying this technology to humans. For
example Dolly was the only success in 277 cell fusions. In other words there were 276
failures and only one success.
Some even questioned whether Dolly is a true clone since she was not cloned from a
currently living adult. Dolly’s older twin had been dead for several years. Some of her
tissues were harvested and kept frozen in a laboratory, so there was no live animal with
which to compare Dolly. However, later research published in Na-ture established that
Dolly was indeed a clone.2
The debate about human cloning took on a new urgency when scientists at Advanced Cell
Technology announced in 2001 that they had been successful in cloning a human
embryo.3 By taking a cumulus cell from an egg cell and chemically treating it, the scien-
tists claimed to have begun the process of human cloning. Actually it is probably too
soon to say if the cloning was successful, and some scientists believe this announcement
was premature since the experiment seems to have been a failure.
In the summer of 2001, Congress considered a bill to ban clon-ing. At that time a new
term began to be used: therapeutic cloning. Some members of Congress argued that there
are two kinds of cloning: (a) reproductive cloning, which involves the creation of a child,
and (b) therapeutic cloning, which involves cloning human embryos that are eventually
destroyed rather than implanted in a mother’s womb.
Representative Jim Greenwood, a Republican from Pennsyl-vania, sponsored a bill that
would outlaw the first form of cloning but would permit the second form of human
cloning so that it could be used for embryonic stem-cell research. At the time, it was de-
scribed as a compromise bill, but pro-life advocates quickly under-stood that words were
being redefined. So they began calling this legislation a “clone and kill bill.” The
Greenwood bill was defeated,
2 David Ashworth et al., “DNA Microsatellite Analysis of Dolly,” Nature, July 23, 1998, 329; and Esther Signer et al., “DNA
Fingerprinting Dolly,” Nature, July 23, 1998, 329–330.
3 Joannie Fischer, “The First Clone,” U.S. News and World Report, December 3, 2001, 50–63.
464 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / October–December 2002
and a bill banning all cloning, sponsored by Representative Dave Weldon, a Republican
from Florida, passed the House and was sent to the Senate.
A similar debate took place in the United States Senate. Sena-tor Sam Brownback, a
Republican from Kansas, sponsored the Human Cloning Prohibition Act, which would
ban all human clon-ing. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, intro-
duced a countermeasure that would permit cloning but would ban cloned embryos from
being implanted in the womb.

STEM-CELL RESEARCH
A second genetic technology is stem-cell research. Although cloning and stem cells may
seem quite different, the two are clearly re-lated. Laboratory cloning is often used to
create embryonic stem cells, and genetically specified stem cells may be placed in a
cloned embryo for research purposes. The importance of stem cells can be understood by
looking at basic embryology.
A single embryo cell becomes two, then four, then eight. Each of these early cells is
identical to the others. There are no eye cells, no heart cells, no bone cells. But soon cells
begin to differentiate. Until they do, each embryonic cell has the potential to be any kind
of cell.
These stem cells in a human embryo have the capacity of de-veloping into all 210
different kinds of tissue. They could become cells that heal broken nerve cells, thus
offering the possibility of treating Parkinson’s disease. They could be used in internal
organs to treat diabetes or heart failure. In essence they hold the key to life itself.
A single fertilized egg is totipotent, meaning that its potential is total. When it first
divides, it produces two identical totipotent cells. This means that either of the cells has
the potential of devel-oping into a fetus. Approximately four days after fertilization these
totipotent cells begin to specialize and form a hollow sphere of cells known as a
blastocyst. The outer layers begin to form the placenta, while the inner cells form every
type of cell found in the human body. These inner cells are called pluripotent, meaning
that they can give rise to many cells but not all types of cells.
The pluripotent stem cells go through a further process of spe-cialization. For example
they form blood stem cells, which can give rise to red blood cells, white blood cells, and
platelets. A skin stem cell can give rise to various kinds of skin cells. These more special-
ized stem cells are called multipotent.
Embryonic stem cells represent a powerful new genetic tool for
Cloning, Stem-Cell Research, and the Bible 465
scientists. The ability to direct these stem cells to produce particu-lar kinds of cells is a
welcome advance in medicine. Unfortunately this raises some important moral issues.
Most embryonic stem cells come from spare embryos used at in-vitro fertilization clinics.
This raises a significant pro-life question. When scientists puncture the human embryos
to gain their stem cells, they kill the embryo.
Embryonic stem cells can also be obtained through cloning. An egg’s genetic material is
removed and replaced with the chromo-some of an adult cell. Then stem cells are
extracted from the cloned embryo. Again this raises pro-life concerns, because human
em-bryos are being produced by cloning so that their stem cells can be taken.
Fortunately there are alternatives. First, stem cells are readily available from other
sources. Placentas and umbilical cords are rich in stem cells. So are some adult tissues
like bone marrow and the nervous system. Already scientists treating cancer and re-
searching leukemia are using blood-cell-producing stem cells from bone marrow as well
as stem cells from the umbilical cords in live births. These sources of tissue regeneration
may become just as promising for advances in transplant therapy as embryonic stem
cells.
A major advance, announced in January 2002, demonstrates the tremendous potential of
adult stem cells. Researchers led by Catherine Verfallie at the University of Minnesota
filed a patent application for what has become known as the “ultimate stem cell.” The
cells isolated from bone marrow could be used in a patient to develop heart, muscle,
brain, liver, or skin cells.4 If the promise of this research holds up, it could eliminate the
need for embryonic stem cells.
Second, in a new procedure stem cells can be extracted from an unfertilized egg cell. This
genetic technique uses a procedure known as parthenogenesis. According to a 2002
report in Science,5 this produces a nonviable embryo that contains a double set of the
mother’s twenty-three chromosomes. The scientists who have de-veloped this technique
believe they have discovered a way to avoid pro-life concerns over the use of embryonic
stem cells. Since the details of this procedure are still sketchy, it is difficult to determine
whether this procedure will or will not avoid pro-life concerns.
4 Sylvia Pagan Westphal, “Ultimate stem-cell discovered,” NewScien-tist.com/news//news.jsp?id=99991826, January 23, 2002.
5 Jose Cibelli et al., “Parthenogenetic Stem Cells in Nonhuman Primates,” Sci-ence, February 1, 2002, 819.
466 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / October–December 2002
In August 2001 President Bush announced a compromise that limited federal funding to
research on existing stem-cell lines. Fed-eral funds are not allowed for the creation of
embryonic stem cells (through fertilization, cloning, or parthenogenesis). But research on
embryonic stem cells has been pursued by various laboratories using private funding.
These laboratories are not affected by the current federal ban on research involving the
creation of embryonic stem cells.

PROPOSED BENEFITS OF ANIMAL CLONING

Since the cloning of Dolly the sheep, reports have been made of successes in cloning
everything from mice to cats. Why have scien-tists been so interested in cloning animals
and humans?
The scientific potential of animal cloning was well illustrated in the December 1998 issue
of Scientific American.6 Animal cloning will be used to create large numbers of what are
called transgenic animals. Transgenic animals are genetically engineered to contain genes
from another species. In fact the sheep Dolly was created in an attempt to discover a
more reliable method of reproducing transgenic sheep.
Creating transgenic animals is a difficult procedure, but it can yield medically important
results. The institute where Dolly was created has transferred the gene for a blood-
clotting protein used to treat hemophilia in humans into sheep. With the proper genetic
enhancement sheep will produce this blood-clotting factor in their milk, which can then
be harvested and sold.
Cloning transgenic animals can also provide organs for human transplantation. For
example pig organs are just about the right size for transplanting into humans. However,
a pig heart or a pig liver would quickly be rejected by the human immune system. But if
human genes could be transferred into pigs, the organs they would produce would be
recognized as human and not pig organs. Currently thousands of people die every year
because human or-gans are not available. Cloning transgenic animals might provide a
large and renewable source of organs for human transplants.
Transgenic animals could also be used to study human genetic diseases. Transferring
defective human genes into appropriate animal hosts could produce research vehicles for
discovering new treatments and cures not possible by using human subjects. Clon-
6 Ian Wilmut, “Cloning for Medicine,” Scientific American, December 1998, 58–63.
Cloning, Stem-Cell Research, and the Bible 467
ing of transgenic animals may also prove useful in creating cells that would be helpful in
treating human diseases such as Parkin-son’s disease, diabetes, and muscular dystrophy.

PROPOSED BENEFITS OF HUMAN CLONING

Proponents of human cloning argue that this would be a worth-while scientific endeavor
for at least four reasons. First, cloning could provide an alternative way of reproduction.
An article on human cloning in Time magazine interviewed one person who said, “I
wouldn’t mind being the first person cloned if it were free.” He is sterile because of
leukemia treatments he received when he was sixteen years old. He said that “technology
saved my life when I was sixteen,” so he believes, he said, that “technology should help
me have a kid. That’s a fair trade.”7
Same-sex couples have also considered human cloning as an alternative method of
reproduction. The clone of one of the part-ners would produce a child of the same sex.
The clone would be ge-netically related to one of the partners (essentially his or her
twin).
Second, proponents argue that cloning might be a way to re-place a lost child. A dying
infant or child could be cloned so that a couple would replace the child with a genetically
identical child. Yet there is no guarantee that the cloned child would be like the original
child. The clone would be genetically identical to the origi-nal, but would have a different
personality and be influenced by different environmental factors.
Third, proponents argue that cloning could be used to produce spare human parts. The
clone would be genetically identical to the original person, so that a donated organ would
not be rejected by the immune system. While this would provide a source of organs for
transplants, one must consider the humanity of the clone.
Fourth, cloning, it is argued, could produce biological immor-tality. A homosexual said
he was long frustrated that he could not readily have children. As he grew older, the
desire to reproduce grew stronger. He said, “I can thumb my nose at Mr. Death and say,
‘You might get me, but you’re not going to get all of me.’ ” He added, “The special
formula that is me will live on into another lifetime. It’s a partial triumph over death. I
would leave my im-print not in sand but in cement.”8
7 Nancy Gibbs, “Human Cloning Is Closer Than You Think,” Time, February 19, 2001, 51.
8 Ibid., 49.
468 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / October–December 2002
Of course this does not produce true immortality. A clone would be nothing more than a
biological duplicate of the person who died. It would be like having a twin many years
removed, but it would not guarantee that the person who was cloned would live on in any
sense.
An article in Newsweek magazine proposed even more provoca-tive scenarios. For
example one woman asked some scientists to clone her deceased father, and she offered
to carry the cloned baby to term herself.9

BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Cloning and stem-cell research raise profound ethical questions, beginning with the threat
they pose to the sanctity of human life. Human beings, created in the image of God (Gen.
1:26–27), deserve protection all the way from conception through natural death.
One of the key passages giving a biblical view of the sanctity of human life is Psalm 139.
David began by acknowledging that God is omniscient and watched David all the time
and everywhere (vv. 1–3). God was aware of David’s thoughts before he even expressed
them (v. 4). Wherever David might go, he could not escape from God, whether he
traveled to heaven or ventured into Sheol (vv. 7–9). God is in the remotest part of the sea
(v. 9) and even in the darkness (vv. 11–12). Contemplating the origin of his life, David
confessed that God was there, forming him in the womb (vv. 13–16). “For you created
my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am
fearfully and wonder-fully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My
frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven
together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days
ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”10
The Bible does not speak of fetal life as mere biochemistry. The fetus in his mother’s
womb was not a piece of protoplasm that be-came David. This was David already being
cared for by God while in the womb. God fashioned David into a living person (v. 13).
Re-flecting on the fact that he was a product of God’s creative work within his mother’s
womb, David praised God for how wonderfully He had woven him together (vv. 14–15).
David drew a parallel between his development in the womb
9 Sharon Begley, “Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?” Newsweek, March 10, 1997, 55.
10 This and other Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.
Cloning, Stem-Cell Research, and the Bible 469
and Adam’s creation from the earth. Using figurative language, he referred to his life
before birth when he “was made in the secret place” and “was woven together in the
depths of the earth” (v. 15). This poetic allusion hearkens back to Genesis 2:7, which says
that Adam was made from the dust of the earth.
David also noted that “Your eyes saw my unformed body” (v. 16). This shows that God
knew David even before he was known to others. When David was forming as a fetus,
God’s care and com-passion were already extended to him. The reference to God’s eyes
is an anthropomorphism connoting divine oversight in the life of an individual or a group
of people.
Other verses show divine involvement in the formation of the unborn baby. God is active
in the event of conception (Gen. 29:31–35; 30:17–24; Ruth 4:13; 1 Sam. 1:19–20) and
also in the formation of the human baby in the mother’s womb. God said to Jeremiah,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I
appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). The word translated “formed” is
used in Genesis 2:7–8 to de-scribe God’s special creation of Adam. It is also used of a
potter fashioning clay into a vase or some other piece of pottery. As God fashioned
Jeremiah in the womb, He was preparing him for his prophetic ministry.
Similar verses describe how God called out various servants of God while they were still
in their mother’s womb. God called Isaiah to serve: “Before I was born the Lord called
me” (Isa. 49:1). God created Samson for his ministry and put his mother under the same
dietary regimen that he would undergo. “But he said to me, ‘You will conceive and give
birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything
unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth [lit. “from the womb”] until
the day of his death.’ Then Manoah prayed to the L ORD: ‘O Lord, I beg you, let the man
of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born’ ”
(Judg. 13:7–8).
Another significant passage is Psalm 51. Written by David af-ter his sin of adultery with
Bathsheba, this psalm records his re-pentance. David confessed that his sinful act
demonstrated the original sin that was within him. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sin-ful
from the time my mother conceived me” (v. 5). David concluded that from his conception
he had a sin nature. This would imply that he carried the image of God from the moment
of conception, including the marred image scarred by sin.11
11 For more discussion of these and other verses see Roy B. Zuck, Precious in His
470 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / October–December 2002
Sight: Childhood and Children in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 74–77.
Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26–27; 5:1; 9:6).
Bearing the image of God is the essence of humanness. And though God’s image in man
was marred at the Fall, it was not erased (1 Cor. 11:7; James 3:9). Thus unborn babies are
made in the image of God and therefore are fully human in God’s sight.
Also Luke 1:41–44 points to the humanness of unborn chil-dren. “When Elizabeth heard
Mary’s greeting, the baby [John the Baptist] leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so fa-vored, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in
my womb leaped for joy.’ ” John the Baptist’s prenatal ability to recognize Mary by
leaping “for joy” illustrates his mental and spiritual capac-ity.
The term Elizabeth used to describe John in his prenatal state is brevfo" (“baby”). This
Greek word is used for a baby inside the womb and outside the womb (Luke 2:12, 16;
18:15; 2 Tim. 3:15).12
The sanctity of human life is affected by certain aspects of em-bryonic stem-cell research
and human cloning. Pro-life concerns arise when human embryos are destroyed for their
stem cells. Similar concerns surround cloning, which is an inefficient and wasteful form
of reproduction. And if human cloning is used to cre-ate spare parts for the original, what
is the moral status of the clone? Both individuals should be treated with respect and
dignity since they are created in the image of God.
Human cloning as an alternative form of reproduction also raises questions about human
parenthood. God ordained marriage as the union of a man and a woman who would give
birth to chil-dren genetically related to them. While there are exceptions to this ideal
(e.g., adoption), this standard should be used to judge repro-ductive technologies like
cloning. Thus the use of this procedure by homosexual couples to provide children should
not be condoned.
Motherhood may also be affected by cloning. Childbearing would no longer be a natural
outcome of procreation. Human clon-ing bypasses God’s plan for human parenthood
(Gen. 1:28). A
12 Brevfo", used in Luke 1:41, 44 to identify the unborn John the Baptist, is the same word used for the already-born Jesus (2:12, 16),
for babies who received His blessing (18:15–17), and for newborn babies (Acts 7:19). Also the Hebrew word dl,y<, used in the Old
Testament to refer to the unborn (Exod. 21:22–25), is the same word used to describe young children. See Zuck, Precious in His Sight,
149–58.
Cloning, Stem-Cell Research, and the Bible 471
mother who clones herself would be giving birth not to a daughter but to a twin sister. A
father who clones himself would have a twin brother not a son. In fact the clones would
not be siblings at all, at least not in the genetic sense. Theoretically they could even marry
each other since they are not genetically similar as a true brother or sister are.
Human cloning blurs the true relationship between procrea-tion and parenthood. God
intends that the family thrive (Eph. 6:1–4; Col. 3:18–21), and some of these new genetic
procedures (human cloning, surrogate parenting, embryo transfer) pose a threat to the
stability of the family.
The Bible teaches that God determines birth (Gen. 4:1; 17:16; Ruth 4:13) and is in
control over even barren wombs (Deut. 7:14). Childless women are not displeasing to
God, as the testimonies of Sarah (Gen. 18), Rachel (Gen. 29–30), Hannah (1 Sam. 1), and
Anna (Luke 2:36–38) attest. God is in control, and can bring great blessing out of the
heartbreak of infertility.
Human cloning raises significant questions about the sanctity of life and the meaning of
parenthood. Created in the image of God, human beings differ from animals. Cloning
represents a tampering with the reproductive process at the most basic level; therefore
even the use of animal cloning to create transgenic animals could be questioned. Some
scientists want to use genetic technology to “rewrite the fifth day of creation.” 13 Using
cloning to create trans-genic species would certainly do that.
Some wonder if a cloned human being would have a soul. Al-though human cloning
would be an alternative form of reproduc-tion, it is still reasonable to believe that human
clones would be fully human. Thousands of children have been born through in-vitro
fertilization, an alternative form of reproduction, and each of them certainly has a soul.
The origin of the human soul is often explained by one of two theories: creationism or
traducianism. Creationism is the belief that God creates a soul for each individual and
places it in the body while the child is in the womb. Traducianism is the belief that both
the body and soul are propagated through sexual reproduction. The first view would
probably not be able to provide a definitive answer as to whether a clone would have a
soul. The traducian view of the origin of the soul would seem to suggest that a cloned
human being would have a soul since both body and soul arise from the repro-
13 Nancy McCann, “The DNA Maelstrom: Science and Industry Rewrite the Fifth Day of Creation,” Sojourners, May 1977, 23–26.
472 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / October–December 2002
ductive event.
Human cloning, like other forms of genetic engineering, could be used to usher in a “brave new world.” A
leading geneticist says, “There is nothing to prevent us from taking a thousand [cells]. We could grow any
desired number of genetically identical people from individuals who have desirable characteristics.” 14
Such a vision conjures up images of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, and Deltas from Huxley’s book Brave New
World and provides a dismal contrast to God’s creation of each individual as unique.15
Each person contributes to both the unity and diversity of hu-manity. This is perhaps best expressed by the
Jewish Midrash: “For a man stamps many coins in one mold and they are all alike; but the King who is
king over all kings, the Holy One blessed be he, stamped every man in the mold of the first man, yet not
one of them resembles his fellow.”16 Christians should reject future re-search plans to clone a human being
and should reject using clon-ing as an alternative means of reproduction.
14 James Bonner, quoted in Los Angeles Times, May 17, 1971, 1.
15 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (New York: Time, 1963).
16 Nathan N. Glazer, Hammer on the Rock: A Short Midrash Reader (New York: Schocken, 1962), 15.