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| Articles: Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!! |
Posted by
Domkitten on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 05:28 AM PST
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.
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| Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!! | Login/Create an account | 37 Comments |
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Re: Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!!
by Xaoswolf (Xaoswolfathotmaildotcom)
on Jan 27, 2003 - 09:10 AM
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I liked it so much better when UFO cults meant that a lot of stupid people got together and drank some poison and died. It meant that we lost between 100-1000 stupid people all at once. Now if the cults start cloning each other instead of suicide, the stupid quotient will be increased drasticly.
If you thought it was bad out before, wait until a few generations of second-rate clones start to be made for these morons.
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Re: Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!!
by Geist (tattooedslacker@yahoo.com)
on Jan 28, 2003 - 02:20 AM
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I really don't know what to think of it all... Kinda have mixed feelings about the whole cloning issues. I mean I understand that cloning could lead to a lot of medical breakthroughs, but the thought of clones of my younger brother running around this world terrifies me. We're still tryin to figure out what to do with the first one. Then again, just because your a clone of someone doesn't mean you'll be like them. I still belive that you're a product of your enviroment.
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Re: Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!!
by Xaoswolf (Xaoswolfathotmaildotcom)
on Jan 28, 2003 - 10:14 AM
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Lets not forget that, well, as long as the aliens didn't come down and show them how, for every good clone that they produce, there are probably 29 babies who died due to various genetic defects.
At least, that's what the scientists who were cloning animals say.
I'd rather not have to see a new type of recycle bin being mad outside of the local Clone-Mart for all the dead babies.
*Remembers a flem strip which featured this*
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Clones for Slavery!!
by MorteAscendo (corpsmanwix@aol.com)
on Jan 28, 2003 - 09:09 PM
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Clone us, and put them to work. BUT! they might revolt. Ever played Star Control 2. The Androsynth. Human Clone slaves that revolted and left the planet. But hey, they worked for about 50 years. Whoo hooo. Make them mindless workers that have only one ambition in life: To Work. It could work. ;)
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Re: Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!!
by Starlight (elenmea@hotmail.com)
on Jan 28, 2003 - 10:37 PM
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A time or two I've given to actually letting myself think on how I feel about the cloning issue. When I get down to it, I don't think I really want to chance having someone come along who would look like me, act like me, think like me, and possibly accuse me of being the clone. That would be one of the most helpless feeling situations that I can imagine.
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Re: Cloning: It's not just for livestock anymore!!!
by Starlight (elenmea@hotmail.com)
on Jan 29, 2003 - 02:56 AM
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I don't think I have any real problems with cloning for specific organs, other than the actual brain itself. The only thing with doing such a thing as organ-specific cloning is that it's an end point. At least that's what I've been told by people who have proclaimed themselves to me to be "in the know" on the subject. Those people said that you have to first clone the entire being, and then you can work your way down to just an organ. If there is a way to circumvent all the trial an error "beings", then I see cloning organs, etc. or an arm, etc. as not so horrible of an idea. I'm just not for the whole cloning the entire being part.
By the way, aren't identical twins essentially naturally occuring clones? I do realize it's the same egg splitting, but at birth (save for those in utero memories) they are exactly the same genetically. The only thing that might change them physically is what happens to them after that. My point is that one twin doesn't claim to be the "real" person, and the other their duplicate. So where does that leave the created clone vs. the naturally occuring genetic duplicate and human rights?
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Re: Cloning:A horrific thought
by Domkitten (domkittenish@spanking.com)
on Jan 30, 2003 - 12:56 AM
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What if they start cloning the irish. Maybe bettie is right and the world is about to end. Scariness...
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