Robert A. Best

According to Robert A. Best in the following viewpoint, originally given as testimony to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on March 28, 2001, all forms of human cloning, whether to reproduce a human being (reproductive) or to conduct medical research (therapeutic), should be banned. All embryos, at any stage of their development, are human beings, and to experiment on them is a violation of their rights, claims Best. Moreover, he maintains, human cloning perverts the nature of parent-child relationships, gives people God-like power over others, and deprives cloned individuals of human dignity. Best is president of the Culture of Life Foundation and Institute, whose goal is to protect all human life from conception until natural death.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In Best’s opinion, what code...