Human cloning is a hotly debated topic in ethics, covered even in movies and television shows like Orphan Black. Some research has been done on the general public's moral opinions about creating cloned babies. But little attention has been paid to emotional reactions to this issue, which could shed light on why human cloning is so contested.

New data address precisely this question in a recent article by Joshua May (Assistant Professor in UAB's Department of Philosophy), which was selected as "Editor's Choice" for the issue published in the Journal of Medical Ethics. The study indicates that — contrary to some speculation among bioethicists — people do not primarily feel that human cloning is disgusting or repugnant. Instead, the dominant emotional reactions are of anxiety and interest.

You can read the published version, the penultimate draft, or a summary of it in a blog post on the journal's website.