Mark D. Eibert

In the following viewpoint, attorney Mark D. Eibert maintains that proposed bans on human cloning are unconstitutional. Since cloning would probably be used by infertile people as a means of reproduction, he writes, a ban on cloning would violate the legally recognized right to reproduce. In addition, Eibert contends that government interference in scientific inquiry is a violation of the rights to free speech and personal liberty. Moreover, Eibert predicts that in order to enforce a ban on human cloning, the government would have to be given enormous power to monitor the actions of research laboratories and infertility clinics. Since, in his view, human cloning would be a harmless procedure, Eibert concludes that talk of banning the technology should be abandoned.

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1. In the author’s opinion...