Human Cloning.

Human Cloning...

Many people are practically in hysterics about human cloning. I'll admit, I'm one of them.. but my hysteria is out of joy and excitement at the promise that human cloning holds for us!

The Genie has been let out of the bottle and it's time to cash in on our wishes. Unfortunately there are those out there who would try to stuff the genie back into the bottle. This makes me extremely angry but I will try my best to make a calm, detached, rational argument for human cloning without ranting too much. Keep in mind, this is an emotional subject for me, being a technophile and all. I do take comfort in the fact that no matter what those neo-luddites do, they will not be able to stop secret cloning projects. Our very own government has probably been cloning and researching military applications for decades.

Many people don't realize the benefits that human cloning can bring us, they just jump up and have a typical knee jerk reaction. Are there issues to be worked out? Yes. But the average American has some serious misconceptions about what is and isn't possible with human cloning.

What if someone clones Hitler? This is the question I've heard asked most in the media. The truth of the matter is, the cloning of Hitler would be irrelevant. When you clone a person, you're cloning their genes, not their mind. Their personalities are largely made up of their experiences growing up and choices they have made in their lives. When you clone someone you may get their body, but you can't have their mind. If you wanted to create another "Hitler" in the sense that you wanted to end up with someone capable of talking people into genocide, then for all intents and purposes you may as well pick any child at random and raise him in such a way to instill in him the same set of beliefs Hitler had. Even then all you have is a kid with Hitler's beliefs.

Let me put it another way. Lets say I'm totally in love with Angelina Jolie... so I decide to break into her house, take a hair follicle from her brush, and build myself an Angelina Jolie clone. First, I have to gain access to cloning technology. Next I need a woman capable and willing to give birth to a baby for me. Then I have to wait for this baby to be born, raised and reach her 18th birthday before I'd be able to take her as a wife. But on her 18th birthday, when I go see her, I'd be in for quite a surprise! First of all, the clone of Angelina, while she looks exactly like Angelina, would not have her personality, thought process, memories.. nothing that makes Angelina Jolie who she is, aside from her body which of course may vary greatly depending on how well the clone of Angelina took care of herself. For those of you who would say that looks are enough (she IS a babe, isn't she? *faint*) to make any Angelina Jolie clone worth it, consider the fact that the Angelina Jolie clone would have her own mind and set of ideas. There's no guarantee she will be interested in you, even if you were the one who decided to create her, in fact, she may resent you for having created her just so you can have her body.

Raising a human clone of someone you like is completely pointless. You're better off trying to find a look alike, at least you won't have to wait all those years for the baby to grow and be raised, and the personality is going to be completely different anyway, not to mention the fact that you have a better chance of convincing a total stranger to indulge your sick fantasies than you would someone who feels like a cheap piece of meat after learning you had them created for their body.

"God created man and it is wrong for man to meddle with god's work." Well, I don't know what to tell people who say this, according to their mythology there is some supreme being who spit into a handful of dirt and it became man. These people run around creating legislature based on their laughable myth which they can only take seriously through willful ignorance and some serious denial.

If you live by a set of beliefs that makes human cloning immoral, then don't go cloning any humans. But leave those of us who are not hindered by some ridiculous mythology alone to expand our knowledge of the human body. I can't imagine even the most pious religious zealot turning down a lifesaving organ transplant because it was made possible by human cloning.

Human history is filled with examples where religious peoples have oppressed knowledge in the name of their god. I have spent the last hour biting my lip and rewriting this section of this page. I need to find a way to calmly express the rage I feel for those that would try to suppress this technology because of their ignorant beliefs. Lets just say that I would be very very upset with someone if they were to tell me that I cannot explore a certain technology because it's against their religious beliefs.

If you truly believe in your all-powerful mythical god. And furthermore believe he is going to be angry at me for cloning humans, then you will just have to let your god deal with me, won't you? Please do not try to stop this technology from evolving because I consider it necessary for my survival, and it is definitely necessary for the survival of millions. Think about it, won't you? Thank you!

The benefits of cloning have not even been mentioned by those who are opposed. I am not a scientist but already I can think of applications that would improve our medical science and understanding of the human body by millennia in the course of a few short years. I personally have never had anything against rapid progress.

Human organ farms can be created that would be a clean, constant supply of blood while the human bodies grew to maturity, and when mature, the clones would be used for organs. BUT WAIT!! Didn't I say earlier that a clone is a human individual like any other and as such has the same exact rights? That's correct! The clones that would be used for organ and blood harvesting would not be completely human, they would be missing the one part that makes a person what they are. The brain.

Is this possible? Yes, it happens naturally from time to time. You may have heard about a baby being born without a brain. They have a Medula Oblongata, or brainstem, which regulates the involuntary processes like breathing and heartbeat but they are just living breathing bodies with no brain. These babies are usually destroyed, they may be healthy babies but with no brain they are just an empty shell with no hope of becoming anything but a larger empty shell.

I'm not a scientist (yet) but I can foresee some problems with this system. One being the pituitary gland. If it's missing how can it regulate growth? Well I suppose the answer to that lies in applying the hormones directly. In fact, having to be directly responsible for the growth regulating hormones may work to our advantage in that we could create a full grown adult in much less time than the natural process would take. I'm assuming the clones would be kept alive through intravenous feeding not unlike coma patients are kept alive these days.

Would it be weird to walk into a room full of living human bodies hooked up to IVs and being constantly drained of blood? Sure it would! pretty darn spooky even! But I would hate to tell someone they have to die because the only way to get them a life saving organ transplant would give me the willies. Not to mention if you think about it in terms of harvesting the empty shells of humans to patch up the bodies of actual individuals.. you're saving lives. That brainless human clone is no more of a human than a culture of bacteria in a petri dish.

Medical Experiments are carried out mostly on animals. These animals do have brains, they have a cerebral cortex which registers pain, and as morally objectionable as I know medical experimentation is, I also realize that we wouldn't have half the medical breakthroughs if it were not for them. If there were a better way to learn how certain drugs or procedures affect a human body, I'm certain those lab technicians would jump at the chance!

We can use the brainless human clones previously mentioned for medical experimentation! Not only will we actually get an accurate feel for how the procedure or drug in question affects a human body, we aren't hurting an innocent, feeling animal in the process. To put it succinctly, if you do not allow human cloning for medical experimentation, than you are directly responsible for the needless slaughter and torturing of innocent animals.

Medical students, instead of learning by dissecting a corpse, could learn by performing surgery on a living human body! This would be an incredible learning tool.

To me the idea is fascinating, the possibilites are fantastic! I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm about this subject but if you do, for better or worse, lets talk about it! Post a message or a hundred on the Genetics board.

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