Saturday, January 04, 2003

Thoughts on Cloning


I can't believe all the fuss about this. First off, it's probably possible. Even so, it is a horrible process at this stage, resulting in mostly failure. For that reason, I don't think human cloning should be done yet. With the reports of premature aging in animal clones, and the huge failure rate... it's wrong to try human cloning at this point.

But all these strange people going on and on about banning human cloning altogether because of ethical considerations... What ethical considerations? Seriously. What is wrong with cloning?

I think too many people are looking at cloning as if it is already in the stage science fiction has dreamed up for it. But at this moment, with the knowledge and technology that we have, clones must be "created" from living donor cells (you can't clone somebody who is dead) and the baby must be carried by a surrogate mother. All that cloning is, at this stage and in the easily forseeable future, is a way to make a time-delayed twin of yourself.

A clone of you would not be you. Your clone would have none of your memories or experiences. Your clone wouldn't have your fingerprints. Your clone would be a person, as valid and real as yourself or a child you might have.

Perhaps instead of trying to ban human cloning, the various governments across the world ought to be making sure that idiots who don't understand life won't try to take advantage of the technology for dumb ideas better left to fiction. Maybe it would be better to make sure that, if someone does manage to make a human clone, the clone won't go through life being thought of as a "thing" instead of a person.

As for the possibility of cloning taking the place of regular reproduction... sorry, the current method of reproduction is far too easy and fun to be replaced by science. Clones will always be in a special realm, like "test tube babies". Reserved for people who can't reproduce in the usual way.

And, sorry, I just can't see anything wrong with that.

Song of the Day


"Walk The Dinosaur" by Was (Not Was). Just because.

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