Kant and Cloning

Rick asks whether Kant's "persons are ends, not means" dictum really works as a basis for opposing cloning without the assistance of religious arguments.  I agree that a religious worldview provides a much richer foundation for opposing cloning, but for those who do not accept the premises of a religious worldview, Kant may be the only game in town.  And if the only viable choices in the public discourse over cloning are a religious worldview and a well-intentioned utilitarianism, I'm afraid that the latter may come out on top more often than not.  I'd welcome Kantian secularists to the conversation with open arms.

This leads to a broader question regarding the benefit we gain from establishing the shallowness of non-religious foundations of human rights.  (And thus may best be directed at Michael Perry and others who have thought more deeply than I have about this area.)  I see the obvious benefit if the religious voices are being deprived of a place at the table, but absent that, don't we want to ensure that the table is open to as many foundational premises as possible, religious and non-religious alike, provided that they are advocating for views that embody Kant's dictum?

Rob

UPDATE: Oglethorpe University politics prof Joe Knippenberg has sent me his fascinating essay, "Liberalism and Religion: The Case of Kant," in which he argues that:

Kant’s [work suggests] that if liberalism is to avoid overweening and prideful “Prometheanism,” there must be some sort of insistence upon human finitude.  Human beings who are unaware of their fallibility and finitude might place too much stock in their own efforts to transform nature and human nature.  In so doing, they might (in Kantian terms) be tempted to regard others merely as means to their own ends.  Thus if liberalism is not to give way to what was once called the totalitarian temptation, it must pay heed in theory and in practice to this human fallibility and finitude.  Kant’s treatment of religion is . . .a finely tuned attempt both to insist upon human finitude and to avoid the despair and lassitude that might accompany that recognition.

If anyone would like a copy of the essay, please contact me and I'll forward it to you.