Shiite: cloning is not a new creation law

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Lebanese Muslim Shiite religious leader said Tuesday human cloning was not "a new creation law" and called for studying the positive and negative impact of such a new experience.

"Cloning does not contradict the issue of divine creation and does not transform the human being into a creator in the face of Almighty God," Seyyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah told the Iranian News Agency. "Those who carried out the cloning were inspired by the divine law of fecundation and birth and did not come out with this experience from nothing. Thus cloning is not the creation of a new creation law but is inspired from the divine law."

Fadallah was commenting on reports about the first successful human cloning announced last Friday by a controversial organization called Clonaid, a process that resulted in the birth of a 3-kilogram (7-pound) girl named Eve.

He said his religious stand concerning this human cloning experience should be measured by "the extent of its positive and negative as well as it moral and immoral impact."

"The universe is limited. No absolute evil and no absolute good. We should study these scientific experiences and we could approve it if its positive impact exceed the negative impact," Fadlallah said.

He described cloning as "a big scientific event that demonstrates human genius in discovering laws and rules of God in creating the universe and human being."

He thus expressed reservation and warned of the "cloning dangers" for "it could confuse the social reality by having a son without a father or without a mother, or a brother to his own mother in addition to the problems of heritage."

Fadlallah said human cloning could not be widespread because of its high cost and thus could be limited to "a small circle" of people and "won't have a negative effect on human reality in general."

"This would stop the emotional debate and study the experience in an objective way," he said.