Regulatory models for human embryo cloning: the free market, professional guidelines, and government restrictions

Both experimental and therapeutic uses of the new reproductive technologies have been governed not by the medical ideology of the best interests of patients and their children, but by the market ideology of profit maximization under the guise of "reproductive liberty." Government in our constitutional, democratic society has the authority and obligation to make and enforce reasonable regulations to manage the new reproductive market in order to protect the interests of the public, prospective parents, and their future children. The "cloning" debate provides a useful opportunity to compare and contrast the competing regulatory models of the free market, professional guidelines, and government restrictions.