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Illegal Beings: Human Clones
Cloning provides an excellent opportunity for reflection
Ken ( 06/04/2003, 14:58:11 )Much debate has been going on about the question of whether cloning should be done. Personally, I have found the question to be more interesting than the answer. Or rather, I am intrigued by the implications on our view of life that the cloning issue has brought up - issues that we have taken for granted and shyed away from answering. It is precisely because we are forced to face such questions that the issue has raised such debate and emotions. First of all, we are not playing God by creating life. Far from it, no one as yet has been able to create life from any non-living material. The cloning process only attempts to reorganise already living materials and causing it to grow in a different manner. What cloning does tell us, however, is the potential of every living cell to organise and grow into a being with consciousness. It is therefore understandable that the idea of cloning will not go down very well with those of us who believe in a unique soul of an entity. The problematic part of the question is often interpreted as the acceptance of whether there is a soul in a living person, but it is rather the problem of where does the soul begin. Our society has been so used to conveniently attributing a soul discretely to a human person that it cannot cope with the concept of human cloning that possesses the potential to destroy such an established notion. Cloning technology has effectively bridged the gap between the conscious entity and the individual components.That is to say, we have traditionally believed that it takes a 'father' and a 'mother' to produce a child who is a creation with an individual identity. However, this is due to the fact that the cell produced by the two individuals possesses the ability to grow into a full human being, scientifically speaking. On the other hand, cloning technology provides the potential of de-specializing the cells in our bodies which have already taken up a fixed function(such as being a part of an organ) and returning them to the original state that is able to grow into a full human being. Keeping in mind that every cell originally carries the information it needs to grow into a full human, cloning technology therefore merely realises the inherent potential of the individual cell. Therein lies the paradox - if the individual person is a unique entity, or possesses a soul, and every cell of the human body has the potential to grow into a full human, at which point therefore does the soul of the individual can be actually said to exist? We used to be so sure before, as the mating between two people was the only way that a cell could grow into a full human being, but when all other cells could be allowed to realise their potential to grow into full, conscious beings, how do we decide the stage at which the cell can be said to have a soul? When it is a cell? that would mean that any cell which possess the potential to become a human have souls, which would practically be all of them. When the cell begin to feel? That would mean the time when it develops a nervous system. When the baby is born? Which practically refers to the time when it leaves the mother's body. - all of which seem just as arbitrary, and dissatisfactory. Interestingly, the question of when exactly a cell ceases to be 'just a cell' and begins to have human rights, if any at all, remains one of the greatest problems faced by legislative bodies. Does a piece of our skin have human rights? Does the complete human that it eventually grows into, who is capable of feeling and thinking have human rights? Does a liver or a heart that it grows into given a different condition have human rights?I do not wish to undermine the debates that are definitely necessary to protect the rights of a clone, if one is born. However, this contradiction in our view of life itself may explain the religious controversy that so often arises from the technology. Perhaps behind the concern of the justification of the technology lies the greater question of our identity - What constitutes a human being?Ken
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.
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