QOTW - What about cloning?
Find a Conversation
QOTW - What about cloning?
| Wed, 08-03-2005 - 6:10pm |
Researchers have successfully cloned animals. There is a growing interest among wealthy pet owners to clone Fido or Fluffy.
What do you think about cloning? Is it okay for animals to be cloned, but not people? Do you think a human can actually be cloned? Would it have a mother? How about its personality? Would it be the same as the donor? What do you think?
Bink (with thanks to the Hounds Board for the topic!)


I dunno about this one... mixed feelings. As a rule I think knowledge is great and should be pursued. But... :-S
Yes, I do think it's POSSIBLE to clone humans. I don't think it's RIGHT. Not sure why exactly; it just feels wrong to me. I do fear the possibility of cloning people for body parts. Ick. As for people's pets... even that seems kind of icky to me. I'd worry about the personality thing too. And the unrealistic expectations that the clone be the exact same. So much a part of our personalities is part of our experiences. A clone wouldn't have the same experiences obviously, so the personality would be inherently different, so what's the point of it LOOKING the same? Sure the temperament would probably be the same, but that's only one small part of the personality.
And the mothering thing, good point! Not so much who the mother is, but who's going to mother the offspring. Nobody is going to nurture the same way a mother would. I suppose adoption at birth would be a solution, but I think animals need to be mothered by their own kind of possible. Not so easy there.
Good question Bink!
I'm all for scientific advancement, but I can't think of any good reason why something should be cloned.
Personally I don't agree with cloning. Not really for any spiritual/religious reasons but mainly because the clone appears to suffer from many illnesses, infections etc, so it is certainly not without problems. Close inter-breading has been found to cause similar problems as we (i.e. humans and animals) require a mixture of DNA in our systems to help us to deal with germs, viruses etc. I think it is cruel to put animals through that and certainly would be so for humans. From what I understand the first sheep to be cloned has suffered extensively with arthritis and many other things due to the lack of mixed DNA in its system.
Interesting idea about whether it would have a mother, but I guess the animal that gave birth (donated the DNA at least) is still the birth mother and I would hope as such would nuture it in the same way it would off-spring, but not sure. Personality wise I would guess there would be many similarities but I don't think cloning can emulate experiences so I would think that differences would exist.
~Carol~
The idea, in and of itself, is disturbing!