Gene Queval's PresentationSeptember, 2003Gene Queval is the President of the Princeton Ethical Humanist Fellowship. He is a graduate of the Humanist Institute and is certified to perform marriages by the American Humanist Association and the Humanist Society of Friends. The experience of having two children conceived via in vitro fertilization gives Gene an insider's perspective on fertility programs and issues. His talk, titled The Inevitability of Human Cloning, dealt largely with the potential that cloning has for enabling couples with infertility problems to have children who carry their own genes (rather than those of an anonymous egg or sperm donor). Gene also presented a strong rebuttal of so-called "moral" arguments against cloning, emphasizing that clones will not be exact duplicates of one of their parents, but instead unique individuals that will grow up with their own unique experience, just like any other children. Why? Because genes alone do not determine who a person will be. Environment and experience play at least as great a part in the development of every individual. Following his talk, we had the most lively question and answer period and group discussion of the year. The controversial nature of this issue (and preconceived ideas in the public mindset) drove most of the questions, providing evidence that Humanists hold a wide range of opinions about the viability and ethics of cloning in general and human cloning in particular.
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The New Jersey Humanist Network is a vibrant and growing community of secular humanists. Humanism is a democratic and ethical life-stance,
which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. We believe that virtues
like morality, kindness, justice and generosity derive from natural human values and reason, and are realized fully only when free from belief
in supernatural powers and a spiritual afterlife. Please consider joining us for our free monthly meetings in Bridgewater.
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