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This Viewpoint formulates and responds to three lines of argument concerning human reproductive cloning's potential to undermine our sense of self or identity. First, cloning would undermine our sense of individuality or uniqueness. But it could only undermine our genetic uniqueness, not our full individuality. Second, cloning would undermine the value or worth of human beings. But it would not make individuals replaceable or of any less moral worth. Third, a clone's freedom or autonomy to construct his or her own life would be undermined by the presence of an earlier twin. But only a mistaken belief in genetic determinism supports this feared loss of freedom.
Advances in genetic science and technology hold out the possibility of being able to clone human beings, though whether that technology will be safe and effective, as well as legally permitted, is uncertain. Human reproductive cloning would take the genetic inheritance of some future children out of the genetic lottery and bring it within human control. How would such a seemingly profound change affect our sense of self or identity? Some worry along these lines, often not well articulated, is one source of the widespread public uneasiness and concern about cloning. Here I will attempt to briefly articulate some of these implications and concerns, as well as to assess how well grounded they are. I make no attempt to assess the full range of moral and policy concerns bearing on human cloning.
One philosophical sense of personal identity is a numerical sense, that is, what are the criteria for a person's continuing to exist over time (1). It should be obvious that human cloning represents no threat to personal identity in this numerical sense. Even identical twins (Fig. 1), who begin life nearly simultaneously with the same genetic inheritance, are distinct individu als. If human cloning would have an impact on individuals' identity or self, it must be a different sense of identity or self.
Another relevant sense of identity or self is a psychological, not numerical, sense (2). It consists of the properties or qualities that an individual considers important to who he is, to what kind of person he is, to what properties of himself he identifies with. These will be a variety of different kinds...