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Is cloning moral, allowed, and/or disallowed by the terms of Judaism?
Great question!
Only I’m afraid I may not have a great (or at least a full) answer.
The truth is we don’t know today whether the cloning of people will ever be allowed according to Jewish law. This is because we don’t know what the procedure will be that will be used to clone humans, nor what all the results will be of that procedure. If that procedure involves doing nothing the Torah prohibits and the results do not lead to any danger or suffering to anyone, then cloning will probably be permitted.
Some potential problems that would lead to cloning being prohibited might be if there was a chance of new diseases somehow developing through the cloning process or if the clones had a greater likelihood of being born sick and suffering throughout their lives.
Keep in mind that Judaism welcomes all advances in science that help people, unless they’re likely to cause more harm than good or somehow violate a Torah commandment.
The only Torah prohibition that sounds remotely related to cloning is the prohibition against kilayim: grafting different species of plants together or breeding different species of animals together (since these also involve playing with DNA). But cloning doesn’t seem to involve these at all.
If and when a process for cloning humans is developed, our greatest Torah sages will examine it and issue a clear ruling. That will be an exciting day (especially for science fiction fans).
The current cloning of animals for scientific advancement is fine, since it is likely to lead to new discoveries which may be of great benefit to society (perhaps for improving an area of genetic therapy that does not actually involve cloning).
I suppose if someone was just cloning animals for fun (theoretically) without recording observations for science, this may be prohibited because of tzaar balei chaim (causing unnecessary pain to animals), since the cloned animals are often sickly and presumably suffer somewhat. But all clones that we know of so far have been created to advance scientific knowledge.
There is an interesting preliminary analysis of cloning in Jewish Law available on the web here .
So dont start asking for an identical twin baby brother yet, but your prayers may be answered in the future.
Wishing you all the best,
Shlomo Shulman
JAAM CT
Maimonides at Yale
Does that mean the breeding in order to create mules and hinnies are prohibited as well?
Unfortunately, the Torah is as stubborn as a mule when it comes to this prohibition. Jews can neither mate a male donkey with a female horse to produce a mule nor a male horse with a female donkey to make a hinny. However, if non-Jews mate these two species together, a Jew may purchase and work the resulting mule or hinny. The Torah only prohibits Jews from breeding separate species, not from using them if they happen to be around.
Similarly, Jews may eat tangelos, even though they may not crossbreed grapefruit or shaddock with tangerines or mandarin oranges themselves.
Take care,
Shlomo Shulman
JAAM CT (JAAM = Jewish Awareness AMerica)
Maimonides at Yale
Waterbury, CT
Comment by ATR — August 4, 2006 @ 10:18 am