title: Human cloning laws, human dignity and the poverty of the policy making dialogue.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The regulation of human cloning continues to be a significant national and international policy issue. Despite years of intense academic and public debate, there is little clarity as to the philosophical foundations for many of the emerging policy choices. The notion of "human dignity" is commonly used to justify cloning laws. The basis for this justification is that reproductive human cloning necessarily infringes notions of human dignity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The author critiques one of the most commonly used ethical justifications for cloning laws - the idea that reproductive cloning necessarily infringes notions of human dignity. He points out that there is, in fact, little consensus on point and that the counter arguments are rarely reflected in formal policy. Rarely do domestic or international instruments provide an operational definition of human dignity and there is rarely an explanation of how, exactly, dignity is infringed in the context reproductive cloning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is the author's position that the lack of thoughtful analysis of the role of human dignity hurts the broader public debate about reproductive cloning, trivializes the value of human dignity as a normative principle and makes it nearly impossible to critique the actual justifications behind many of the proposed policies.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Canada. tcaulfld@law.ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Caulfield
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002170:Canada; D019976:Cloning, Organism / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D033141:Genetic Determinism; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011050:Policy Making; D014481:United States