Playing God
I'll take Robin's suggestion first on human cloning.
I'm not sure if he wants to know whether I am for or against human cloning or what I think the future of cloning is, so I'll touch on both subjects.
Dolly, the first living cloned sheep, had quite a few health problems, among them severe arthritis and a lung disease. She lived only six years and in that time gave birth to a pair of twins, one set of triplets and her first was a single live born female. I could be wrong, but I believe all Dolly's offspring were females, most likely because she was the product of cloning and not the result of male and female mating. Even though she mated with a ram, it is quite possible she would have had only female offspring, which brings up the question of whether or not a cloned animal, or human, would be capable of producing the opposite gender even through the natural mating process.
Despite the health problems and limitations of cloning, I do see human cloning coming, if it's not already here for those wealthy enough to pay for it. It has certainly been the plot of quite a few best selling thrillers, not the least of which was The Boys From Brazil, which was also an international best seller and was adapted as a movie with Laurence Olivier playing the Jewish man hunting for Eichmann.
It is natural for humans to want to control and mimic, or even better nature, and we now have sufficient technological know-how and chutzpah to follow through. What the mind of man can conceive he will achieve. What is fiction today will become fact tomorrow or next year or in a decade or two, although the automotive brains are still behind on giving us flying cars and indestructible clothing.
Despite the inherent problems with cloning, it would prove a viable option for the hormone treatments, like insulin injections for diabetics, and growth hormones for children with pituitary deficiencies, to name just two issues. To be able to transplant a healthy pancreas or pituitary gland without the problem of graft versus host issues, an exact genetic match that would not require the recipient's immune system to be irradiated or chemically knocked out, would prolong lives and eradicate the need for synthetic or even natural substitutes. Instead of mechanical hearts and valves or the short life of a pig valve, whole hearts could be transplanted without long term immunosuppressive therapy or blood thinners. Cloning an organ is substantially different from cloning an entire human being, whose body parts would be a walking warehouse for replacement parts for aging primaries, humans succumbing to disease and time. That makes the cloned human little more than a slave without a soul and not entitled to a life. Whatever spin movies and fiction put on the issue, we would be playing god. Yes, they would be us, but not us.
The possibilities for healing are endless, but so is the probability to cause harm. The power would be absolute and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
To limit human cloning to bringing back the dead -- a child killed before his time or one that has succumbed to illness -- opens the door too widely to be ignored. What man can do, he will do, with the best of intentions, but eventually without restraint. The rich would have first access, if the pharmaceutical companies would be willing to let go their monopoly on health care for the good of mankind, and that is a big IF, and then it would trickle down to the less fortunate because, after all, the least among us must not suffer because they do not have the power or the money. It would be their right and the government would have to make it available under whatever blanket health care plan was available.
A better and more workable alternative would be stem cell research. Undifferentiated cells -- cells that have not become skin, organ, tissue, etc. -- have the potential to be anything. They could regrow brain tissue after traumatic brain injuries, restoring function and inhibitions and alleviating anger management problems, as well as curing paralysis and neural, sensory or motor function impairment. Spinal cords could be regrown. Pancreas, heart, liver, bone, and every other major organ or system in the body could be returned to full function. Stem cell research may also hold the key to longer life and hormonal imbalances by replacing glands. Limbs could be regrown. We could eradicate or at least lessen the impact of diseases until replacement organs could be repaired. The possibilities are endless.
Stem cell research may also hold the key to unlocking cancer's mysteries and understanding virus and disease pathogens. No one need suffer, or if they suffer, it will be of short duration.
Stem cell research and cloning are closely linked at the genetic level and as a potential source of healing. While human cloning is fraught with peril as long as man has a hungry and boundless ego and wants to wrestle with whatever deity he chooses to believe in, stem cell research offers the same hope with fewer potential risks. It may come down to a question of whether or not a cloned human has a soul or is merely a walking, talking extension of the original human. Unlike the issue of robots which have no soul at issue, who is to say there is not a divine spark even in a cloned human. Until we are mature enough as a species to deal honorably and honestly with a created doppelganger, we should set our sights on science that is more workable and offers fewer ethical issues, like stem cell research.
The one thing we have going for us as a species is a conscience and, for most of us, a desire to do what is ethical and moral. I'm not sure we are ready to go down the road toward human cloning until we first explore all other options. I have no doubt human cloning is being tested and may even have had some success. Where there is a will, there is definitely a way, and there is no stopping a scientist when he is hot on the trail of knowledge and possibilities. For now, I'll wait for the species to mature and keep putting my chips on the wheel of fortune for stem cell research.
That is all. Disperse.
I'm not sure if he wants to know whether I am for or against human cloning or what I think the future of cloning is, so I'll touch on both subjects.
Dolly, the first living cloned sheep, had quite a few health problems, among them severe arthritis and a lung disease. She lived only six years and in that time gave birth to a pair of twins, one set of triplets and her first was a single live born female. I could be wrong, but I believe all Dolly's offspring were females, most likely because she was the product of cloning and not the result of male and female mating. Even though she mated with a ram, it is quite possible she would have had only female offspring, which brings up the question of whether or not a cloned animal, or human, would be capable of producing the opposite gender even through the natural mating process.
Despite the health problems and limitations of cloning, I do see human cloning coming, if it's not already here for those wealthy enough to pay for it. It has certainly been the plot of quite a few best selling thrillers, not the least of which was The Boys From Brazil, which was also an international best seller and was adapted as a movie with Laurence Olivier playing the Jewish man hunting for Eichmann.
It is natural for humans to want to control and mimic, or even better nature, and we now have sufficient technological know-how and chutzpah to follow through. What the mind of man can conceive he will achieve. What is fiction today will become fact tomorrow or next year or in a decade or two, although the automotive brains are still behind on giving us flying cars and indestructible clothing.
Despite the inherent problems with cloning, it would prove a viable option for the hormone treatments, like insulin injections for diabetics, and growth hormones for children with pituitary deficiencies, to name just two issues. To be able to transplant a healthy pancreas or pituitary gland without the problem of graft versus host issues, an exact genetic match that would not require the recipient's immune system to be irradiated or chemically knocked out, would prolong lives and eradicate the need for synthetic or even natural substitutes. Instead of mechanical hearts and valves or the short life of a pig valve, whole hearts could be transplanted without long term immunosuppressive therapy or blood thinners. Cloning an organ is substantially different from cloning an entire human being, whose body parts would be a walking warehouse for replacement parts for aging primaries, humans succumbing to disease and time. That makes the cloned human little more than a slave without a soul and not entitled to a life. Whatever spin movies and fiction put on the issue, we would be playing god. Yes, they would be us, but not us.
The possibilities for healing are endless, but so is the probability to cause harm. The power would be absolute and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
To limit human cloning to bringing back the dead -- a child killed before his time or one that has succumbed to illness -- opens the door too widely to be ignored. What man can do, he will do, with the best of intentions, but eventually without restraint. The rich would have first access, if the pharmaceutical companies would be willing to let go their monopoly on health care for the good of mankind, and that is a big IF, and then it would trickle down to the less fortunate because, after all, the least among us must not suffer because they do not have the power or the money. It would be their right and the government would have to make it available under whatever blanket health care plan was available.
A better and more workable alternative would be stem cell research. Undifferentiated cells -- cells that have not become skin, organ, tissue, etc. -- have the potential to be anything. They could regrow brain tissue after traumatic brain injuries, restoring function and inhibitions and alleviating anger management problems, as well as curing paralysis and neural, sensory or motor function impairment. Spinal cords could be regrown. Pancreas, heart, liver, bone, and every other major organ or system in the body could be returned to full function. Stem cell research may also hold the key to longer life and hormonal imbalances by replacing glands. Limbs could be regrown. We could eradicate or at least lessen the impact of diseases until replacement organs could be repaired. The possibilities are endless.
Stem cell research may also hold the key to unlocking cancer's mysteries and understanding virus and disease pathogens. No one need suffer, or if they suffer, it will be of short duration.
Stem cell research and cloning are closely linked at the genetic level and as a potential source of healing. While human cloning is fraught with peril as long as man has a hungry and boundless ego and wants to wrestle with whatever deity he chooses to believe in, stem cell research offers the same hope with fewer potential risks. It may come down to a question of whether or not a cloned human has a soul or is merely a walking, talking extension of the original human. Unlike the issue of robots which have no soul at issue, who is to say there is not a divine spark even in a cloned human. Until we are mature enough as a species to deal honorably and honestly with a created doppelganger, we should set our sights on science that is more workable and offers fewer ethical issues, like stem cell research.
The one thing we have going for us as a species is a conscience and, for most of us, a desire to do what is ethical and moral. I'm not sure we are ready to go down the road toward human cloning until we first explore all other options. I have no doubt human cloning is being tested and may even have had some success. Where there is a will, there is definitely a way, and there is no stopping a scientist when he is hot on the trail of knowledge and possibilities. For now, I'll wait for the species to mature and keep putting my chips on the wheel of fortune for stem cell research.
That is all. Disperse.