Send in the clones!
But first, have them take a DNA test before they get here please. We wouldn’t want to upset the public, cause a media frenzy, start a campaign against all types of cloning including therapeutic cloning which one day may cure diseases, or start another religious debate between scientists and theologians on how we got here in the first place, now would we?
Oops, too late. It already started and, before you know it, the marvels of modern science haven’t created another miracle, instead it has created a modern controversy.
Could it be true? First Dolly the lamb and now Eve, the first human clone? Guess again. It isn’t April Fool’s Day yet, but the hoaxes have already begun and the media can’t get enough of our alien friendly Raelians, the religious sect claiming their scientists have created the first clone. Eve, who in the biblical sense is the mother of us all, now gives her name to a baby girl born to a 31 year-old American and apparently is the identical twin of her mother. Apparently a baby Adam has been born as well.
Brigitte Boisselier, a Raelian bishop and CEO of Clonaid, just announced the birth of another baby clone last week, causing skeptics and pundits alike to get on the cloning ban bandwagon, not to mention make me roll my eyes far back into my head. There isn’t any proof of a clone because the Clonaid folks say the parents of the baby are hesitant to have the tests done.
There isn’t a complete ban on cloning yet because both houses of Congress have not supported the ban. The House passed it but the Senate lacked 60 votes needed to support the ban. There has been widespread criticism on behalf of world leaders, theologians, President Bush and even scientists who have denounced the claims of Clonaid.
Scientists who believe in the future and possibility of therapeutic cloning argue that such a hoax can deter the hard work researchers have been doing in the advancement of medicine. Many fear that legislators and the public do not understand the distinctions between therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Someday, I believe that therapeutic cloning will cure diseases. I may sound naive and it may be a long time before we see a news conference announcing the first disease cured, but I’d like to imagine a future in which the common cold can be cured and cancer and diabetes will become archaic words and won’t be used in everyday language. Instead of imaging a world with flying cars, how abut a future without disease.
Therapeutic cloning would create replacement cells for sick people, cells that their bodies would not reject because they would be genetically identical to their own.
To get the ball rolling, scientists need support, money and they need to be honest about the reality of this type of cloning. Therefore, scientists and legislators must take courses in communication skills and use them in discussing this debate. Talk is still cheap in Congress.
I won’t advocate the idea of cloning another person by installing memories and a personality in “it” as if “it” were a piece of software and not another human being. I will advocate the use of science being used in the healing process. To believe that the Raelians are God is to truly believe that the chief Rael, Claude Vorilhon, met olive-skinned aliens with almond shaped eyes near a volcano in 1973. Okay, so now you know where I’m going with this.
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