Resources for Educators: Human Cloning & Engineering

“Human cloning is intrinsically illicit in that, by taking the ethical negativity of techniques of artificial fertilization to their extreme, it seeks to give rise to a new human being without a connection to the act of reciprocal self-giving between the spouses and, more radically, without any link to sexuality. This leads to manipulation and abuses gravely injurious to human dignity.” Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions n. 28.

Important Church Documents:

• Instruction Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2008).
• Donum Vitae, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and On the Dignity of Procreation, Replies to Certain Questions of the Day, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1987).
• Reflections on Human Cloning, Pontifical Academy for Life (2000).
• Selected Quotes from Church Documents on Human Cloning, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Catholic Websites:

• “How to Vote Catholic: Bioethics,” CatholiCity: The Catholic Church Simplified
• Fr. Anthony Zimmerman, STD, “Human Cloning,” CatholicCulture.org.

Articles:

• Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning: Questions and Answers, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2008). English
• “Research Cloning and ‘Fetus Farming’: The Slippery Slope in Action,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Secretariat.
• “Practical Obstacles to ‘Therapeutic Cloning,'” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Secretariat (February 2006).

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