On Human Cloning

[Barry]

Human Cloning: Where’s the Beef?


There are many forms of reproduction, sexual just one of them.

Consider asexual reproduction: you are a hydra, all alone, no partner; you have no one but you to share your life with. You want to reproduce, to spread yourself into the future. What possible option do you have?

You can bud, split yourself off from yourself, hope for the best, trust in the nature of life. What more is there for you, if you have no other option?

What’s wrong with human cloning, morally or ethically? Where does the real problem lie? In plain and simple reality, it’s just reproduction: one person wanting to project themselves into the future. What could be so wrong with that?

The obvious answer is nothing. But the answer is far from obvious. If it were simply a matter of being like the hydra, budding, the splitting of one’s genetic material and making a new copy, there would be no dispute. But right now, in the current cultural and technological context, that’s not possible, is it? Meaning, that’s not really what all the buzz is about. Right now, for someone to clone themselves, to bud, to reproduce asexually, split up their unique genetic material and project it undifferentiated into the future, the assistance of massive corporate money is necessary.

Thus begs the question, where do individual rights fit into all of this?

If a human is born through the auspices of corporate R & D, what rights as a human does that individual have? What rights should the corporation that paid for the individual have? What about the rights of the individual whose genetic material was reproduced, the “parent,” if you will?

Right now, in the current cultural and technological context, it is not possible for a human to reproduce through asexual reproduction; i/e, alone, without the assistance of another human or group of humans. Right now it takes at least two. In the future this may change. No doubt, it will.

The rights of that asexually reproduced human baby, and of its parent, are to be decided now.

The company or companies that shell out millions or billions of dollars in research to make such reproduction possible have a viable stake, but how far does this extend? And is this the primary consideration in the question of allowing this research to go on or not?

Is this an ethical question or a moral one?

Should anyone who wants to be allowed to project their undifferentiated genetic make-up into the gene-pool?

What about aberrant genes?

Would a person with Down’s syndrome be allowed to clone themselves? Currently it’s not a law that they be sterilized, but as the brother of a Down’s syndrome male, I know for a fact it is done.

What about homosexuality? Would homosexuals be allowed to clone themselves, projecting the gay gene further into the gene-pool?

What about Tay-Sachs disease, genetic proclivities for cancer, any number of genetically passed on conditions? Would these people be barred from asexual reproduction in the future in which human cloning has become a reality?

What about people with brown eyes? What if in the future, brown eyes are deemed unsavory? Or people with blonde hair, or redheads? Or short people? What if in the future people with a longer middle toe are deemed flawed somehow?

What exactly is wrong with human cloning in the current human cultural and technological context?

Is it simply about money? That the corporations funding which endeavor would feel they have rights as regards the individuals created by such research and development?

Is it really about masters owning the rights to the children of their slaves? Is it that much of a throwback? Have we progressed so little from the days of Ancient Rome?

What, exactly, is wrong with human cloning?


Peace,
Barry

[Arcadia]

Consider asexual reproduction: you are a hydra, all alone, no partner; you have no one but you to share your life with. You want to reproduce, to spread yourself into the future. What possible option do you have? ... with that beggining I expected at least a cure for cancer or obesity...!!

no complete idea about clonation nowadays but yeah, it´s possible it´s a corporate bussiness (first time I read about it was in a fiction book where some people tried to clonate Hitler from some of his fingers cells... if I remember well... ).

I wouldn´t choose to be clonated: it sounds somehow a boring, redundant and too biological and at the same time too ideological idea. At the moment I´m only messing with life and at the same time helping to raise plants and other ones´s kids, not exactly the same ADN, I guess... !