Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!! Date Thursday, April 25, 2024 - 01:51 AM PST Topic News We’ve all heard about it, we’ve all thought about it, we’ve all seen it on Star Trek, or for the neophytes in Austin Powers movies. That’s right, it’s the human clone, and it’s back and better than ever. Or at least that is was the Raelians would like us to believe. Some think it signifies the end of the world, other just the insanity of a small group of people. However much we try to make it go away, cloning is hear to stay. Let’s look at the facts. Has it been done? Yes, we can say for all certainly that we have at least cloned livestock and animals on several occasions, beginning with Dolly the sheep Dolly) there has been an awful lot of talk about human cloning and the implications. Congress got in such a huff about the possibility of clones that the House of Representatives banned human cloning outright (House Bans Cloning); an act that has not been put officially made into law yet. The Pope (Pope), Pro-lifers (Lifers) and even respected scientists (Science) have spoken out condemning cloning. People have heated debates about cloning all the time, and frankly it’s hard to bring cloning in conversation without getting into heated and opinionated arguments on both sides of he debate. The pros of possible clones are many from the ability for patients to essentially “heal themselves” to the advancement of research in disease control, prevention and cure. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to clone our way to cures for breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, and even obesity if it were possible? The cons, on the other hand seem to be mostly moral outrage and disgust about science gone made and the possibility of creating Frankensteins. It is a new technology, scientists are in essence trying to create life, and it is very probable that there are clones that end up on the proverbial floor (think Aliens: Resurrection when Ripely has to confront the failed attempts at herself.) With all the talk in the news lately about the possible Raelian cloned humans there is an even larger debate about the ethics of cloned life. A trip to the Raelian website (Cloners) will give you information on possible ventures in cloning, including INSURACLONE™, OVULAID™ and CLONAPET™. INSURACLONE™ offers the most interesting possibilities. To quote: “Available now!!!! Your cells preserved for a lifetime!!!! • If you want to keep your genetic material safe while you are in good health. • If you want to be cloned one day. • If you want to make sure that when you need to, you can benefit from a new organ generation and transplant thanks to your own genetic repair kit, the INSURACLONE™ program is right for you” Highly fascinating, saving your cells for those just in case emergencies like accidentally giving yourself lung cancer or being hit by a Mack truck. Unfortunately the biggest drawback is that the Raelian movement, which has been around for years, is possibly wackier than Scientology. A group that believes that we are all descended from a higher Alien clone, and which also hopes that someday we can all travel again into the stars, is just as creepy as the Heaven’s Gate members who did away with themselves 1997 over fear of the impending millennium. For the moment, personally, I don’t fear cloning. I don’t think it is the end of the world, and aside from the various avenues it will open up in genetic research I think it will come to be little more than a fertility therapy for the next few years. Currently the only way to clone a human is by making a baby. Realistically all babies are in some way a clone of their parents. A cloned baby is just that more so. A child still needs to be raised, and in the process of becoming an adult will no longer be the same as the person who donated the genetic material. In this way, I do not feel threatened yet by cloning. When science makes the daunting step of actually bringing something into existence that is not only human, but adult, and with the full capability of recovering memories, then I will really start to worry. Regardless of the possibilities for expanding the mind and learning from the accumulated wisdom of lifetimes of experience, I think there does come that point were playing god gets out of hand. If it comes to that I will do my best to take myself and my genes with me. Cloning is, in general, really creepy. When you get right down to it the thought of making an identical copy of you is just really disturbing. Could you imagine a hundred Pat Robertsons walking around, or even worse, several Jaleel Whites? I mean think about the endless possibilities to run into people you really dislike or never want to deal with. The high school geek who made millions marketing his computer software could have a Mini-me out there somewhere biting peoples ankles, it’s just downright scary. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=473