Re: Cloning and Halacha Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 22:06:46 +0200
Lili Pauli (phenya@ccsg.tau.ac.il)
Mon, 9 Feb 1998 14:09:11 -0500
Cloning and halacha from Arutz 7 News 13 Tevet (Jan 11) 5. CLINTON, MOSLEMS
JOIN CHIEF RABBI AGAINST CLONING U.S. President Bill Clinton, in his weekly
radio address to the American citizenry yesterday, urged Congress to
quickly pass legislation banning human cloning for at least five years.
Last June, Clinton sent to Congress a proposal for such legislation,
specifying a five-year period during which the National Bioethics Advisory
Commission could assess the risks, and the ethical and social impact of
cloning humans. "Unfortunately, Congress has not yet acted on this
legislation," Clinton said yesterday. "Yet it's now clearer than ever the
legislation is exactly what is needed." His call comes following an
announcement by physicist Richard Seed that he plans to open a cloning
clinic for couples who are having trouble conceiving. Last March, Chief
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau said that although there is no specific Halakhic
prohibition to reproduce a human being with artificial genetics, it is
entirely against basic Jewish concepts to do so. "The Torah gave a
specific dispensation for doctors to use their knowledge to cure, and even
to lengthen life, but the formation of new life goes way beyond that," he
said then. Islamic experts who convened yesterday in the United Arab
Emirates released a decision yesterday saying that human cloning is
forbidden by Islamic law.
With blessings,
Richard (Rachamim) Pauli