Me:
>Who among you would want to be a clone? Who among you would
>want to grow up as a clone?
> I think none. However, you can't speak for another person.
On the contrary, if none of us would want to be a clone, there is darn
good reason for thinking a clone would not want to be a clone. Unless we
can get consent to be a clone, we should not make a clone. And since
we cannot get such consent, we ought not make a clone.
>I have read
>(somewhere) that this human cloning thing has two main pushes. 1. from
>people who have lost children, especially infants or small children. It's a
>way to have that exact child back from the grave. 2. from people who need
>organs. if you could clone just a *heart* or a *liver* ONLY(!) from your
>own cells it would be most useful.
Both arguments are weak ,selfish, and cruel (even ghastly). If these are the
rationales for making clones, then the future is quite dark. We like to talk
about preserving the environment, but I'm losing a desire to preserve the
environment for the type of being humans will become. In fact, these
arguments
for cloning are the very type of short-sighted arguments used to justify
trashing
the environments - they appeal to immediate gratifications and have no concern
for the long term effects of the abuses on what it means to be human.
I once read/heard someone make an excellent point. Many materialists
think of humanity's future in Star Trek ways. Noble humanity, with its sense
of meaning and ethics intact, explores the galaxy, making peaceful contacts
and
alliances. But maybe humanity's future is not as the Federation, but instead
as the Borg. An amoral, machine-like hive that cares mostly about absorbing
and implementing new technology and changing itself to spread its existence
across the galaxy. This promised cloning experience suggests we are clearly
on the Borg track.
>As for cloning a whole person, I agree, it's dicy ethically and in a world
>with 6 billion people, who needs it?
Alas, we agree on something!
Mike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Mar 08 2000 - 01:19:57 EST