INEVITABLE HUMAN CLONING AS VIEWED FROM 221-B BAKER STREET

Ethics & Medicine,  Fall 2004  by Cheshire, William P

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Nontrivial technical obstacles to human cloning remain, however, no matter how much hubris aspiring cloners bring to their efforts. Some of the bizarre variations on these experiments reveal the tenacity with which the goal of human cloning has been sought. Following Advanced Cell Technology's unpublished 1998 experiments in which human cell nuclei were inserted into cow eggs to create bovine-human hybrid embryos, former National Bioethics Advisory Commission Chair Harold Shapiro remarked, "As the technology continues to burst forward with such stunning speed, one has to be very modest about what one can expect to do to control and regulate one's basic principles." Bracing against the gusts of inevitability, Shapiro added, "We know that it would be very difficult but not impossible to stop something that we are against."17

To concede that the arrival of technical opportunity must be the prelude to large-scale, inevitable human cloning would be to overlook the decisive role of ethics. Opportunity correctly understood is an invitation to responsibility. Holmes and Watson acknowledged this when their client, entrusted with the precious Beryl Coronet, recognized "the immense responsibility which it entailed upon me."18 In another story, it was Holmes's reputation for being a man of "honor and discretion" that drew the heir to the throne of Bohemia to 221-B Baker Street entrusting the detective "with a matter of the most extreme importance."19 From the perspective of Baker Street and beyond, ethical restraint, not brazen indulgence, guides noble conduct.

The prospect of cloning a human being would have no doubt fascinated Sherlock Holmes, who thrived on applying his habits of observation and deduction to crimes no one else could solve. Holmes confided to Watson his "love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life."20 Deeply attracted to the extraordinary, Holmes spent his life "in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence."21 Watson noted that only the most remarkable of problems challenged Holmes's powers of analysis22 and disclosed that, "he would devote weeks of most intense application to the affairs of some humble client whose case presented those strange and dramatic qualities which appealed to his imagination and challenged his ingenuity."23

Not only the cloning, but also the zealous cloner seeking celebrity, would have captivated the attention of Holmes, who aspired to preeminence in his own field. "I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous," said Holmes privately. "No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done."24 Yet Holmes sought to do good and consistently placed the interests of justice and beneficence ahead of his own personal gain or safety. Dr. Watson described him as "unworldly," adding, "I have seldom known him claim any large reward for his inestimable services."23 According to Watson, "he was ever as ready to bring his aid as his client could be to receive it."25 In contrast to scientists whom Lord Robert May, President of Britain's Royal Society, recently characterized as "cowboy cloners,"1 Sherlock Holmes the gentleman detective exemplifies intellectual passion tempered by dedicated adherence to moral principle.