>The first question that came to my mind remains unresolved to me, and that
>is a question of the clonee's spiritual condition. How, if at all, does
>that person's soul relate to that of the donor?
I think that a hint can be gleaned from an example of a multi-parent animal.
It seems that multiple embryos can be joined together to create a single
adult with 4 or 6 parents. This has been done for mice.
"If most of the cells of the blastocyst give rise to the trophoblast,
exactly how many cells actually form the embryo? ONe way to answer this
question is to produce ALLOPHENIC MICE. Allophenic mice are the result of
two early-cleavage (usually 4- or 8-cell) embryos that have been aggregated
together to form a composite embryo. As shown in Figure 28, the zonae
pellucidae of two genetically different embryos are removed and the embryos
brought together to form a common blastocyst. These prepared blastocysts
are implanted into the uterus of the foster mother. When they are born, the
allophenic offspring have some cells from each embryo. This is readily seen
when the aggregated blastomeres come from mouse strains that differe in
their coat colors."~Scott F. Gilbert, Developmental Biology (Sunderland:
Sinauer Assoc. Inc., 1991), p. 95
and
The experimental data of Mintz (1970) are that 73 percent of the double
embryos yield allophenic mice, thus suggesting that three blastomeres of the
blastocyst produce the entire embryo. Markert and Petters (1978) have hown
that three early 8-cell embryos can unite to form a common compacted morula
and that the resulting mouse can have the coat colors of the three different
strains. Therefore, while it is not certain that three is the absolute
number of blastomeres that form the embryo, we can be fairly certain that
the number is not much greater and that most of the cells of the blastocyst
never contribute to the adult organism."~Scott F. Gilbert, Developmental
Biology (Sunderland: Sinauer Assoc. Inc., 1991), p. 95-96
Since these mice act like normal mice, I see no mechanical reason such a
thing could not be done with humans (apart from the obvious ethical
problems). I would bet that the composite person would have a single
consciousness and soul.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm