Religion, Morality, and Public Policy
This chapter explores how religious convictions have functioned in the debate about whether human reproductive cloning should be banned, regulated, or permitted—a debate that erupted in 1997 following the belated announcement of “Dolly’s” birth. This historical case study examines and assesses the arguments that arose at the time, particularly in the context of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) report Cloning Human Beings. The NBAC hearings included testimony on religious views on human reproductive cloning, and its report examined and assessed those views. The chapter also considers NBAC’s deliberations about federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research that further illuminates the place of religious convictions in public bioethics. It concludes that in public bioethics the process of reaching a decision—or, in NBAC’s case, a recommendation—should attend to the widest possible range of positions and rationales, but that the outcome in substance and in public justification needs to involve, as Robert Audi argues, a sufficient or adequate secular reason.