From: Ken Clements (Ken@Innovation-On-Demand.com)
Date: Sun Aug 12 2001 - 21:54:33 MDT
"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
> British Chief Rabbi denounces cloning
> http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/08/12/LatestNews/LatestNews.32385.html
> "Moreover, he argued, the practice of cloning will challenge the defining
> belief of Western civilization: that each individual is unique and
> irreplaceable."
>
> So that's it! I had wondered why neo-Luddites oppose cloning with such
> vehemence. It "challenges" their petty ego-centric religiosity!
>
Most people do not realize that human cloning happens every day in fertility
labs. The result is usually clones of the same age (twins) unless one goes in
the freezer for a few years. Of course, Nature has been doing this cloning
thing for as long as there have been humans, so the problems for religion are
not new. When I was a child I asked my religion class teacher, "Who gets the
original immortal soul when identical twins split into two separate people?"
The answer was not very satisfying. This lead to a further puzzle having to
do with soul distribution between Siamese twins connected at different
places. From an early age I learned that, when present, the bogosity of
belief systems is most visible at the boundary conditions.
By the way, this new respect the Right has found for those thousands of frozen
embryos makes me wonder why they consider frozen embryos to have more right to
life than ordinary people in cryo. I say "Stand up for equal Dewer Rights!"
-Ken
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