Cloning

Cloning is one of those subjects that I have debated in my head over and over again, and through that process I have been able to see many different sides of the issue. I personally tend to place myself among those that do not believe that cloning is necessarily a bad thing. I do know that many people will disagree with me on this, however I do understand and respect the right to their opinion and I believe that there are many moral and ethical questions that are raised with this issue that can make it wrong.

People have cloned plants for centuries, and animals have cloned themselves for just as long. The resulting offspring from these cloning may have the same genetic material as the original donor, but it is by far anything similar to the original. Genetic Makeup does not make the person; we can see that with twins, it is the personal experiences that make the person unique and different, not necessarily genetics.

I believe the real moral issues for human cloning should come from the reasons behind the person’s reason to clone. Cloning a dead loved one is all well and good, but as I stated earlier this will not bring the person back, and at the most it may serve to do nothing more than constantly remind the person of the lost loved one, or worse yet cause an unhealthy fixation with the cloned child. This unhealthy psychological aspect could cause some negative family interactions especially with how the “parents” respond to the other children who are not clones. However cloning someone you love or even yourself to create a child that is related to you for the benefit of having a child is another story all together. This I personally have no problem with, I could see many opportunities for people who for no fault of their own: illness, accident, rape, etc that are unable to conceive or have children to carry on their own genetic code, especially since their inability to have children is not due to genetics, so their “Grandchildren” would in effect be their true next generation. This is itself creates an entirely new family structure, not just on the aspect of what generation is what, but what would the structure of such a family be like… what would it be like to raise your identical twin from birth?

Many people cite religious reasons for cloning to be wring, but like all technology it is a double edged sword. God gave us the ability to grow in knowledge and experience, if he did not intend for humans to ever be able to learn to clone, then he could simply make it impossible to clone a person. (This may actually be the case since the Clonaid claims have never been proven.) I believe personally that a life is a life from the very moment of conception, and I believe that a cloned child is no different, just because the genetic material is the same does not mean that it lacks a soul, God would love it as a unique person. I believe like with all technology the ability to clone is a double edged sword and can create many issues in the future, what is to stop people from enslaving clones as secondary citizens because they were not conceived in a normal way?

My main issue with cloning is on the fact that people and other species tend to weed out genetic shortcomings over time due to selective breeding, if we become a species that reproduces asexually then we keep the same genetic material, we do not evolve and grow as a species.