Human Cloning

July 5th was the 21st anniversary of the birth of Dolly, the first cloned mammal. August 12th was the season finale and final episode of Orphan Black. For those of you who haven’t watched Orphan Black, it’s a popular sci-fi TV series that explores the ethics and science of human cloning. In honor of these two memorable events, our show is dedicated to human cloning.

Greg Pence joins the podcast to discuss his his most recent book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Clone Club: Bioethics and Philosophy in Orphan Black, and the science, ethics, the pop culture portrayal, and popular misconceptions about what it would really be like to clone humans.

About Our Guest

Gregory Pence is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

He has written seven books, including three on human cloning: Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning?, Cloning After Dolly, and What We Talk About When We Talk About Clone Club: Bioethics and Philosophy in Orphan Black. He is also the author of the standard textbook in bioethics: Medical Ethics, which is now in its eighth edition.

In 2001, Greg testified before Congress to discourage them from passing a bill that would make any attempt at human cloning a Federal Crime. He has published numerous op-ed essays including ones appearing in Newsweek, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal.