Equal Protection for Human Clones: A Review of Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law by Kerry Macintosh

Abstract

In response to the arguments of social, religious and medical ethicists that reproductive cloning undermines human dignity and should be banned, Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law by Kerry Macintosh marshals constitutional law and policy arguments toward a critique of legislative efforts to prohibit human reproductive cloning. This is a welcome perspective, given the tendency of efforts to ban human reproductive cloning to rely on philosophical imponderables rather than serious, thoughtful consideration of the practical ramifications of cloning bans on those who will inevitably be born via the use of this technology. This review joins those who have favorably received Macintosh's book. It begins by situating Macintosh's book within the debate over human reproductive cloning and executing a close reading of her constitutional-law argument. It praises in particular Macintosh's meticulously honed insight that bans on human reproductive cloning perpetrate an insidious existential segregation of human clones. This review concludes with some reflections on how the Supreme Court's jurisprudence mandating equal treatment for non-marital children might be brought to bear against reproductive cloning bans.

Keywords: human reproductive technology, law and legislation, cloning law and legislation, equal protection