Abstract
Pali Buddhism would approach this ethical issue from three directions:
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1.
questioning the motives of the cloners
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Human
cloning involves intentional human action: do we classify this action as ‘skilful’ or ‘unskilful’ (in Pali, kusala/akusala kamma; in English, good or bad karma)?
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2.
protecting the interests of the cloned
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Buddhists
are committed to treat all sentient beings with metta (loving-kindness). From this derives an analysis that overlaps with the European rights / interests / expectations approach.1 Will a cloned human, qua cloned, get less metta than a standard-issue human?
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3.
Is the cloning process itself ethically flawed?
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Would
human cloning weaken institutions — such as the family — on which human flourishing depends? Or would it interfere with natural processes — such as karma — on which the flourishing of all sentient beings depends?
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References
See D. V. Keown/C. S. Prebish/W.R. Husted, Buddhism and Human Rights (1998).
See P. Harvey, The Selfless Mind: personality, consciousness and nirvana in early Buddhism (1995).
References in this form are to the Pali Canon and the commentaries thereto. Save for punctuation, I follow the standard abbreviation system outlined in V. Trenckner (ed.), Critical Pali Dictionary 1 (1936), 37–69, and updated by O. v. Hinüber, A Handbook of Pali Literature (1996).
King Ashoka of Pataliputta is also admired by the Buddhist tradition, but he has two disadvantages: he never met the Buddha, and he spent some years as a cruel king before his repentance and conversion.
The Great Tunnel Jataka (#546); E. Cowell/W. Rouse, The Jataka translated from the Pali by Various Hands (1907).
R. Kirkpatrick, Cloning and Buddhism (2000), http://www.humancloning.150m.com/article8.html.
His teeth, hair and bones are enshrined as relics in most of Asia’s major Buddhist locations.
Gautama himself, by reason of his parinibbana, can no longer be reincarnated.
W. LaFleur, quoted in Glenn McGee (ed.), The Human Cloning Debate (2nd ed., 2001), 285–288.
See http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cloning#Ethics.
The Pontifical Academy for Life, Reflections on Cloning (1997), www.vatican.va/roman-curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents.
T. Eich, Muslim voices on Cloning, ISIM Newsletter 12:38–9, June 2003, 39.
R. Lingat, Les Régimes Matrimoniaux du Sud-Est de l’Asie, Tome 1: Les Régimes Traditionnels (1952).
M. Barnhart, Nature, Nurture, and No-Self: Bioengineering and Buddhist Values, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 7 (2000), 35–53.
M. Weitsman, quoted in Glenn McGee, supra note 9, 285–288.
P. Ratanakul, Buddhism, prenatal diagnosis and human cloning, in N. Fujiki/D.R.J. Macer (eds.), Bioethics in Asia (2000), 405–407, www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/asiae/biae405.html.
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Huxley, A. (2004). The Pali Buddhist Approach to Human Cloning. In: Vöneky, S., Wolfrum, R. (eds) Human Dignity and Human Cloning. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6174-1_2
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