Forum
Human Cloning Foundation Hails British Scientists
Paralyzed
Walk Again
Childless Couples
Essays
The Benefits of
Human Cloning
All the Reasons to
Clone Human Beings
The Top Ten Myths
about Human Cloning
Human Cloning is the Cure for Infertility
Infertility is
a Disease
Books
People
Reports
Archives
Feedback
Donate
Links
Website Links
About Us
Contact Us
Site history
Site Map
Past Books of the Month
John Kunich's Books
Copyright
Illegal Beings: Human Clones
Re: Cloning in the future
SC ( 10/31/2003, 06:08:08 )I don't know if there is a pure answer to this, although it's certainly connected to several interesting and important issues.In the theoretical case of two utterly identical people which you seem to present, I think the crime would be both murder and suicide. If it were possible for two completely identical people to exist at the same time, they would have the same impulses at the same time as well. Therefore, your clone would kill you at the same time as you killed your clone. You might try to kill your clone without killing yourself, but your clone would have the same idea, so the result would be that you'd both end up dead. One of the questions you've raised is the degree to which our lives are interconnected. Is it ever really possible to kill one person without some degree of harm spilling over to someone else? The case that you've posed for the purposes of argument would be virtually impossible to actually create, and the killings probably wouldn't be perfectly synchronized, so the initially obvious crime would be murder.However, there is usually some sort of interrelationship between murder and suicide. If you were to kill someone so much like yourself, would you be able to keep living? To even try it, you might be somewhat suicidal to start with. What if you killed your clone, but the grief and remorse became too great, and you then ended up killing yourself? What appeared to be murder in the beginning would end up being both murder and suicide.Even without cloning, and between strangers, there have been cases where these sorts of things occurred. A suicidal man, for instance, might be ready to die, but convinced that no one will feel sorry when he's gone, so he goes out and shoots other people before turning the gun on himself. Relatives of the initial victims, overcome by grief and loss, then go on to kill themselves. Are the relatives suicide victims or murder victims? Is there anyone, for that matter, who isn't a bit of both?What I think your example illustrates is that the two often go hand in hand. If one person has somehow lost the will to live, that affects another. The closer the two people are (in physical proximity or through personal relationships), the more devastating the effect tends to be.As people get more choices about extending their lives, there could be more cases that revolve around some version of the questions, "Did he jump or was he pushed?" Or "Did he freely choose not to extend his lifespan, or did somebody brainwash him into it?" Even now, when I hear someone say, "I wouldn't want to live any better or longer anyway," I wonder if it's a free choice, or if that person might have been traumatized in some fashion.
This Message is being posted for educational purposes, as well as for comment and criticism, by the visitors to the HumanCloning.org Foundation website (www.HumanCloning.org ).
Disclaimer: Information provided on this web site is for educatonal purposes only. It is not a substitute for, nor can it replace advice from your own physician.
HumanCloning.org™ Established December 11, 2002.
Who's Afraid of Human Cloning?
Disease Prevention and Treatment