SCIENCE SUNDAY!!
1. Apparently I'm ignorant, but could someone please explain to me all the "ethical" problems that cloning brings up? Is it all about mankind creating life on its own, as opposed to God, and the subsequent worry that the clones will be without a soul, somehow? And if so, aren't we all... um... kinda past that?
posted by Pascals Bookie @ 3:09 PM
2 Comments:
Well, sadly many of the kids are not "past that". However, there is another concern, at least worth consideration (although in my opinion it is ultimately less weighty than the arguments in favor of research). As per a discussion I had with Ms. Wilson this past Saturday eve, many people, despite what they know about the role played by genetics in the development of a person versus that played by environment and upbringing, find their biological origins to hold an almost spiritual significance. Think of adopted children. There is no real reason why an adopted child should feel much more than an intellectual curiosity about its biological parents, since those that loved it, cared for it, and raised it are its real, functional parents. Yet learning that one is adopted is frequently a very emotionally significant event. The same goes with people who have ancestry from a particular country, regardless of the absence of any of that country's culture being passed down to them by family members. Some people with Irish grand, or great grandparents whom they never knew still feel some sort of affinity to Ireland.
I personally don't feel anything of the sort, but I can understand how physical origins can provide a point of focus in a search for self identity, however tenuous or irrational the actual connection is. Likewise, how do you explain to a fully grown clone that he or she is just that. It is unrealistic to assume that neither the clone, nor society would react with reasoned indifference to the revaluation. The fear is not that clones would be some sort of souless abominations, but rather that their biological origins might lead them to be treated as something less than human with all the potential for tragedy that has historically accompanied the dehumanization of groups of people.
All that said, as I've said in a discussion over on Optimates, I'm not usually convinced by slippery slope arguments and I think in this case there is a huge gap (one that need not inevitably be closed) between cloning cells for medical and basic biological research, and growing, surrogate mothering, birthing, and raising people from DNA templates of living (or dead) adults. Begin the Clone Wars let!
I guess my thought is that cloning a human being is as close as science will likely come to ever finding the answers filled in by religion. With this action, mankind will touch the face of God as never before, and I think a lot of people will be disappointed with the results, particularly when it - inevitably - works. If the clone acts as a human being, with emotions and thought processes and mistakes and all, and doesn't turn out to be the antichrist, a lot of people are going to have a lot of rethinking to do, and I can empathize with that. The more we understand about our place in the world, the less mystery and wonder the world holds for us. And while there is almost always a rational reason for discovery, something is usually lost in the process. The New World killed the age of Dragons.
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