Faust and Prometheus: notes for an ethics of human cloning Authors Francisco Montero Delgado Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Laboratoris Clínics HUVH Keywords: ethics of cloning, ontological status of the embryo, reproductive ethics committees, ectogenesis, surrogate motherhood. Abstract Both therapeutic and reproductive cloning raise a polarized debate among citizens and the scientific community. We have to stress the idea that cloning produces a copy of a gene, not a photocopy, since a copy of a person is not the same human being. Nor can we clone the desire for freedom or the personal conscience built with untransferable intimate experiences, creating different identities as a result. The myths of Faust and Prometheus are becoming a reality and this causes a vertigo of existential magnitudes never observed before in human beings. In spite of the prohibition and given the irremediable fact of reproductive cloning, we should begin to formulate standards to be able to take morally defensible decisions about this new and inevitable scientific possibility. We humans have always intervened in nature with our tools and technologies, with our techné. We have also invented conceptual or intellectual tools. The creation of binding committees on reproductive ethics could represent a powerful deliberative and regulating tool in the approach to cloning, analyzing every application with rigor and on a case-by-case basis in order to use ethics in the service of genetics. The real fear that certain narcissistic personalities may misuse cloning to flatter their sick egocentric personalities or to wield power over others must be present in the decision-making process. Likewise, another important problem is that human cloning alters the basic relationship between the cloned person and his or her genetic ancestor (father or mother). This leaves lots of questions unanswered and it challenges the traditional models of parenthood: What does it mean to be a father? What is a family? What is the purpose of having children?Keywords: ethics of cloning, ontological status of the embryo, reproductive ethics committees, ectogenesis, surrogate motherhood. Author Biography Francisco Montero Delgado, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Laboratoris Clínics HUVH Downloads PDF (Català) Issue Vol. 67 (2016) Section Destacats de recerca License The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors. 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