Cloning and the Creation of Saviour Siblings from the Perspective of Criminal Law and Ethics

• Author: Florentina Pusca
• Pages: 52-56

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2017

52

Cloning and the Creation of Saviour

Siblings from the Perspective of Criminal Law and Ethics

Florentina Pușcă1

Abstract: In this paper we have examined the role of criminal law and ethics regarding the creation of saviour

siblings, since there is no European or international settlement for this field, only for IFV technique. The

concept of a saviour baby or saviour siblings means a child who is born to provide an organ or cell transplant

(through the donation of body fluids, umbilical cord blood, a non-vital organ or tissue) to save a sibling from

illness or death. Cloning ensures that the new child is an appropriate match for the existing person, since they

would be genetically si milar. Creating a child for the purpose of saving another child violates the formula of

humanity because the child is created for this end. The results of this research are of interest to law school

students, teachers and researchers in the legal field.

Keywords: saviour siblings; cloning; humanity; criminal law

1. Introduction

We are dealing in the third millennium with a world whose development has taken an unprecedented

momentum in which science and technology open up new horizons that give hope to improving the

quality of life and even the prospect of interventions on the course of one's own destiny.

The world goes through the third industrial period, one based mainly on the applications of informatics,

chemistry, biology and medicine. Human society faces a series of questions that often seem to have been

unresponsive or sometimes given too many answers based on considerations of the most varied

(scientific, ethical, religious) and subjective opinions, so that they become a confrontation of opinions

and ideas that engage large masses of supporters, without being able to provide general satisfying

solutions to these issues and current questions of particular importance. They divide the society and give

rise to conflicts.

Genetic research, culminating in the decoding of the human genome, the cloning issues have prompted

a particular response from the public opinion and the media, triggering discussions and responses to

these delicate issues from all social groups, both at national and international level. (Pattinson, 2005, p.

3)

Man desires more and more to be credited into creator, to decide his own fate, to hold power over life

and death. However, in search of these possibilities, the man does not know where he is heading, if the

result of these researches and changes is beneficial or harmful to him and the society.

1 Senior Lecturer, PhD, “Danubius” University o f Galati, Romania. Address: 3 Galati Boulevard, 800654 Galati, Romania.

Tel.: +40.372.361.125, fax: +40.372.361.290. Corresponding author: florentinapusca@univ-danubius.ro.