Morality of Human Cloning

[SmiZ]

With the recent "go-ahead" from England as well as a few other countries, I'd like to hear other's thoughts on the morality of human cloning.

First of all, we don't know if this will be successful, but my money says it will, maybe not right away, but within a couple of years.

This brings up some questions:

* Is human cloning a good idea?
I think it will happen regardless of what we say now that the technology is available. Some country somewhere will allow whatever developements scientists want to pursue. Nothing could have stopped the invention of atomic weapons once the knowledge was there.

* What facets should cloning be used for?
I am thinking that cloning could be useful for specific areas. The list for patients in need of an organ transplant is extrememly long and if cloning could be done for organ harvesting, would you aprove?

* Is killing a clone murder? If so how does this affect the above example?

* Should clones have the same rights as naturally born people?

* What if it was made possible that a clone of your brain at a certain stage of your life was available to be put into a fresh body whenever you needed it. (Think 6th day for anyone who saw it) It would be possible to live forever in such a case. Does that make you excited or worried?

* Murder, death, assassinations, serious injuries, none of these would matter anymore if the above example was true. Would this bring about a safer and more peaceful society?


I really believe cloning will be the biggest issue for the foreseable future. Part of me is extremely excited, and the rest of me needs a change of pants.

 

[Pretender]

I see no problems whatsoever.

 

[luv2chill]

It's certainly an intruging subject. I read an article about it in the latest Wired Magazine that changed my view from "against" to "unsure". The article suggested that perhaps the first human clone has already been created somewhere in the Far East.

I think it has the potential for abuse, but I think it's too important of a subject to not research it. Of course you will find dime a dozen religious fanatics who will say that cloning=the devil and all research should be stopped. I disagree. We should proceed, carefully.

l2c

 

[Philosopher]

Clones should be used to fight our wars. They could be made brainless, and we could install a computer chip to control movement. Just imagine....the perfect army

 

[KameLeon]

so like they're gonna make clones? what if it turns out to be fuked up? Do they just kill it?
Of course, I don't agree with it. We just aren't meant to be "manufactured", it's like there's no value to life anymore..

 

[SmiZ]

KameLeon:

That's part of the question here. Does man have the right to play creator? If so, does some scientist somewhere decide who's "good" and when to go back to the drawing board.

What if you could order your child out of a catalog?

Comercial:
"Want a high school all american football player with a 205 IQ? How bout blonde hair and blue eyes? We got all this and more!! Just send us $99.95 and in two short weeks you'll receiver your very own WONDER KID in the mail."

"Sorry no COD's. Offer not valid in Tenesee, Wyoming, or Oklahoma."

 

[luv2chill]

Y'all should rent the movie Gattaca if you haven't seen it already... VERY COOL movie.

l2c

 

[BoberFett]

Cloning a human is no different than a male and female causing sperm and egg to create a human. It's just a slightly different process.

 

[KameLeon]

I'm against it 100 percent. No man shall have or has the right to play creator. No scientist shall have or has the right to create or destroy a human being. And i'm definitely against such sick idea of ordering babies from a catalog. So the answer is NO. It's just one of those things that is not meant to be.. But my opinion won't make a difference. so..



<< Clones should be used to fight our wars >>


Clones could be used for this and that...you could do this and that with them..
How far are we going to go for our own benefit?

 

[Mua10\]

What if they find a way of just cloneing tissue and organ. Clone a pig to have the same blood type as the person needing the organ.

What if............

 

[SmiZ]

My post wasn't really a for or against type thing. Just discuss what you think will occur because of it. Regardless of whether you like it or not, I believe we're going to have to deal with it.

Find me someone who is pro nuclear war. I don't know anyone who wants to see a nuclear winter, but now that it has been invented, there isn't much we can do besides hope it never happens.

Just another reason I believe the biggest danger to man's survival is man.

 

[Yzzim]

I think cloning should only be used for medical purposes and don't believe that scientists should be able to make the &quot;perfect&quot; human. But, it's gonna happen someday.

 

[poop]

I don't see why cloning getseveryone's panties all in a bunch. I guess very few people understand what a clone is. Cloning is the artificial equivelant of creating an identical twin. You just make a baby with the same blueprints. You do not make a copy. There is a HUGE difference.

And as to your question about killing a clone? Um, they are people. Killing people is bad. Your question is like asking if it is ok to go around killing twins. That is just plain silly, man!

The only bad thing about clones will be the damage to our genetic diversity. But that is not a problem, as only the rich will have clones made. This could have gattaca-like repurcussions, but I don't want to go that far.

 

[SmiZ]

poop:

To &quot;harvest&quot; organs from a clone you would have to kill it would you not? My question was is this ok. I didn't mean people should be able to kill a clone for fun, but it sort of follows the abortion debate. &quot;when does a fetus have rights?&quot; can be read &quot;when does a clone have rights?&quot;

 

[Total Refected Power]

The question to be answered is this:

&quot;Does a clone have a soul?&quot;

We slaughter animals for food and fashion, research and fun but do so because we believe they are inferior to us spiritually.

What about a clone? If it lives and breathes and has the same hopes and fears and dreams, than it is a person with all the rights and privileges.

It was just created in different matter.

I think cloning organs as replacement parts is the way to proceed. We can already produce human being quite easily and fun to boot.

 

[IamDavid]

If cloning would produce a exact duplicate (i.e. Grown man ) then I would be worried. The way it stands now who cares, it may even end up being a good thing for couples who can't conceive.

 

[SSP]

The next big wat... Humans VS Clones (yeah, I know they are human too).

I think cloning will be abused. It's going to happen, no matter what you say. It's too easy not to.

 

[Elledan]

Forget ethics. Look at it from a total objective point of view. Do you see the possibilities of cloning? Do you see the problems with it? Do you see what you can and can't do using this technique?

For all those ignorant fewls who keep forgetting this point: You can _not_, I repeat, you can not clone someone's personality, only his/her genotype, i.e. the organism's body thus not the personality.

That's why all those stories about creating clones of Hitler, Einstein and famous artists etc. make me laugh and feel sick at the same time.

I see only a very limited range of applications for cloning. It would be ideal for people who lost a limb or organ or skin and for testing the effect of chemicals on Human tissue, but nothing further than that.
Notice that I'm now only talking about growing body-parts out of a bodycell. No cloning of whole Humans/animals for that would be both too expensive and illogical since you only need a small part of a body, not a whole Human/animal.

Those stories about cloning whole Humans are for the most part pure BS, mostly caused by movies and books.

Cloning will absolutely not play a big role in our lives before we are sure that it is truly possible to grow a working organism out of an adult cell (hasn't been confirmed yet) and it is much more efficient (not all 'cloned' cells will start to divide so dozens of them are needed for one clone).

We don't have to worry about the 'rights for cloned people' yet, although I would like to suggest that we just treat those clones as normal people, which we are already doing, since clones are already walking among us. Thousands of them. Those clones are called 'twins'

Nature has been cloning for thousands of years.

 

[GL]

Of course, human cloning in and of itself is not morally or ethically wrong. Anybody that thinks so must buy the argument that humans are nothing but the sum of our cells.

That being said, the real danger of course, lies in our implementation of this procedure. Do human embryos become a commodity in laboratories like rats currently are? What kind of rights does the &quot;parent&quot; of the clone get over the clone? If the clone turns out to have serious &quot;defects&quot; due to the cloning procedure, can he/she sue whoever cloned them? How do we prevent cloning for the cultivation of organs?

These are all legitimate questions which have yet to be answered. So at this point in time, I'm not for human cloning. I think we have to take it nice and slowly and work out the issues before we jump in head first because there's no going back.

-GL

 

[RevVveD1]

Cloning has a lot of possibilities and could benefit man more than we could ever imagine, but it also has just as many problems and downsides.. Just one I can mention that would have some serious issues is the statement made above...

<< Clones should be used to fight our wars >>

Good idea or bad? It could be good, brainless soldiers designed for fighting, keeping our families at home safe and not getting them shot to death, however isn't his just another form of slavery in which we fought to abolish?

just a thought....

 

[bigbootydaddy]

you cant just lose ethics...that is what is wrong with this world..all business. no ethics=no respect. no one really respects the next and thus a lot of things are let go. like cloning. lets just say if it was meant to be it would have happened. who died and named you god?

 

[bigbootydaddy]

ignorance on my part -- remember the ear on the rat thing?? is that how you would be able to replace limbs, otherwise the choice is make a human and cut and paste?? hehe

i dunno....its just the whole playing god thing. if someone lost a limb, im sorry, it happens. you know what type of people are out there. they will abuse it.

remember xman? mutant registration? remember segregation?? why do you think it would be any different from clones, especially if they are to be purchased??

 

[Swag1138]

The thing about any technology, in this world, no matter WHAT benefits it will offer to humanity, it will be used for the whims of the powerful. Sad but true.

* Is human cloning a good idea?

I dont think so. As I said, no matter what benefits it will have for people, it wont benefit them. It will be used as a plaything for the powerful.

* What facets should cloning be used for?

Going by &quot;should&quot;? There is no facet it should be used for. Yeah, you could create a clone to get organs and such, but the clone would be alive, and therefore you would be commiting murder (this was brought up in a really neat episode of Sliders)

* Is killing a clone murder? If so how does this affect the above example?

Yes, killing a clone is murder. As somone said, it is an equivalent of an identical twin, only, in most cases, much much younger. Its not an exact duplicate in every respect, it just has identical genes.

* Should clones have the same rights as naturally born people?

Why wouldnt they? They are human just like everyone else. And unless Im missing something, they still have to be gestated, and carried by a human before they are born, so in that respect, they are just as naturally born as anyone.

* What if it was made possible that a clone of your brain at a certain stage of your life was available to be put into a fresh body whenever you needed it. (Think 6th day for anyone who saw it) It would be possible to live forever in such a case. Does that make you excited or worried?

This scenario is WAY into the future, if it will ever happen at all. If it does happen, it will mean nothing for 99.9% of the world.

* Murder, death, assassinations, serious injuries, none of these would matter anymore if the above example was true. Would this bring about a safer and more peaceful society?

Excuse me while I laugh..........Ok, Im better now. NOTHING, repeat, NOTHING can bring about a safer and more peaceful society. It just wont happen on this Earth, with this humanity. Sorry, but no.



I wouldnt doubt that there are already SEVERAL human clones around the world, and I dont doubt that whatever idea people come up with, clones will be used for that purpose. The sad thing is it will be bringing about a life, but people are only concerned with what it could mean for them, or the rest of humanity. What if you created a clone and he didnt WANT to donate his body for examination? What if he didnt WANT to help people? What if he didnt WANT to fulfil everyones wishes? Flat out, cloning is a bad idea, but it has already happened, so nothing we can do to stop it. Short of storming every science labratory in the world, but I dont see that happening any time soon.

 

[poop]

ok, let's reiterate this tired, yet constantly ignored, point:

CLONES ARE HUMAN BEINGS THAT SHARE DNA WITH A PRE-EXISTING HUMAN BEING.

So here, I rephrased the questions so they make sense to the people who STILL ignored big sentence above:

*Is having babies a good idea?
*What facets should humans be used for?
*Is killing a human a murder?
*Should humans have the same rights as naturally born people?

These questions are generally easy to answer. Why do you think they are such a big deal?

Oh, and about living forever. A copy of you is simply a copy. It is not you. When you die, you cease to exist (let's keep this limited to the Earthly realm).

 

[GL]

poop,

Most of the debate (at least where my concerns are) revolve around the use of cloning in the lab where the embryo is grown to a certain point, then disgarded. As I said, I have a problem whereby embryo use in the lab (where it can grow into a viable fetus) becomes a commodity like rats are in the lab.

I fully understand what human cloning is today, and think nothing is wrong with the concept.

-GL