A DISCOURSE ON IMMANUEL KANT'S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE AND ITS IMPLICATION ON HUMAN CLONING

Abstract

Theconsequences of cloning are both liberating and enchanting; and, these stare us in the face and may not be easily swept away. The consequences and the implications are not only for the human species; but, matters of human life in general have made several scholars continuously contribute to knowledge in this regard. There are always two sides or multifaceted dimensions to the arguments, but primarily the arguments are usually steeped in utilitarianism which promotes the argument for cloning because it appeals to the fantasies of the highest number; and, also considering the fact that it will make the populace better off rather than worse off. The other perspective usually from a deontologic-ethical background frowns at cloning and articulates that cloning merely see nature as a means to an end and humans may become enslaved by unchecked clones in future times. The crux of the essay, though employing a Kantian perspective to the discourse, goes beyond Immanuel Kant on the subject by pulling arguments from Martin Heidegger to reinstate that cloning diminishes human dignity and testifies to the “standing reserve” which takes the subject out of objects like humans and makes them exists only for their future potential; and, attempts to relegate humanity into the stratosphere of irrelevance. In the end, the paper posits that cloning activities must make central to their research the dignity and worth of life as we engage in qualitative and rational justification of the discourse through the method of critical analysis and interpretation. This paper expresses that Kant's moral reflections may be brought to bear on the extremist tendencies latent in cloning.