The clones are coming! The clones are coming!
When the news hit of Dolly, the first mammal
cloned, it sent a shockwave of ethical repercussions around the world. Considered
trite and boring by science fiction standards, cloning in Scotland generated
enough excitement to put the picture of a sheep on front pages everywhere.
Not since Louise Brown was there such a noteworthy birth. In the wake of
public opinion that followed, it became clear that many people are confused
as to what cloning really is. There are those who fear only the rich being
able to grow spare parts for themselves. There are predictions of an army
of Hitlers forming armed militia. Many people see adult replicas of the cloners
serving unscrupulous needs. These people are mistaken, of course.
To understand what cloning really is, one
must know the difference between genotype and phenotype. Genotype is the
actual gene make-up of a living thing. Phenotype is what that living thing
looks like. The brave new world of today sees a sheep identical to another,
not only phenotypically but genotypically as well. For the first time, a
sentient being, albeit it a herding animal, exists when it was never meant
to be. Is this bad? I don't think so.
It's just weird.
An egg is emptied of it's DNA, and the
whole amount of DNA from an already existing being is inserted into it. The
egg is electrically and chemically stimulated to divide normally as if the
full amount of DNA were the usual mixture from mother and father. This is
a leap from artificial insemination and other assisted reproductive techniques.
At least those mixed a mother's and a father's genes together to produce
the next generation.
If one were to consider cloning an identical
twin a generation later, one must look into the human meaning of progeny
because cloning changes everything: Dolly is the same generation. A generation
later.
Motherhood and fatherhood, grand motherhood
and grand fatherhood imply different generations. Dolly being the same generation
eliminates these distinctions. This promises to add a lot of confusion. And
what of spare parts? Once it's clear that a baby is "conceived" and born,
it becomes obvious that we can no more raid his or her body than raid anyone
else's. This child would be a citizen constitutionally protected like any
other American born. And other countries? Perhaps terrible things may happen
in those places, but terrible things already do happen...everywhere. Since
cloning is a conception, there are no adult armies of Xeroxed Hitlers or
anyone else to land on our shores in hordes. We're talking about babies.
That's how Dolly started--she was born. Even an army of Hitlers would have
to grow up, be raised, and, well, get along.
Don't worry about Hitlers.
Cloning may be good or bad for a species,
because it can either preserve a good aspect of biology or continue a bad
aspect. The natural processes of evolution are thwarted, because natural
selection is by-passed. This may seem attractive in thoroughbred horses,
but in humans it really may be that only the rich are able to clone themselves.
And if so, they will lose the greatest benefit of evolution--diversity, which
promotes the fittest. This is the scientific reason for laws against incest.
(The moral reasons speak for themselves.)
The ethical considerations are valid. If
a couple were to lose a child in a car accident, would there be any harm
in cloning him or her to replace, emotionally anyway, a place in the family
that was meant to be--in the parents' eyes? I suppose there would be some
value from the parents' point of view, but the cloned child would feel different.
The psychodynamics are baffling. There's no perspective. How would a child
feel, declaring existence at all as justification for existence, while knowing
he or she owed existence to the failings of a previous child? If all of this
is confusing, it's because cloning introduces elements that are contradictory
and which mixe reason with emotion. I myself tend to feel that cloning humans
is probably a pretty bad idea for now. Then again, how could I feel bad about
someone who exists at all, no matter how the means?
A quote from Salman Rushdie is, "Being
alive makes up for what life does to you." Life is a gift, no matter what.
And if it's better to give than to receive, we should all be certain about
the receiving part of the deal before we give life via cloning.
