The Raeleans claim that they have cloned a human.
Now I will register my skepticism here. It seems a little fishy to me that they have actually pulled this off since so many other scientists have had such trouble cloning mammals. We shall see if it turns out to be a hoax. There’s a good chance that it is just that. Let us hope so. Then we can put it on the cover of the “Enquirer” where it belongs.
But if they have, I am VERY disturbed by it. I am taking a deep breath right now, trying to narrow all the reasons down to a few coherent points so as not to rant, but to be as rational as I can. But I have to acknowledge there is a part of me that is hysterical. (It must be the bull-shit gene expressing)
Genetic diversity is our greatest strength. It is this quality that saw to it that some of us survived the Black Death and any number of other plagues throughout history. Why then would it be desirable to clone a human or any other animal for that matter besides the obvious. . .Arrogance.
I have read articles where the scientists were breathlessly describing the wonders of whole herds of cows cloned from the same “perfect” specimen. Excuse me my dear scientists, does this not also mean that this same herd would be susceptible to being wiped out by a disease to the LAST animal ? Biology 101.
With all the treatments available for infertility, why add cloning to the mix?
Well, these people will say, “We want to re-create the child that we lost.”
I am asking you now to listen very carefully to this… the operative words in that sentence are, “We want.” We want it, therefore it should happen. We want it, so we will MAKE it happen. We want it, so we will violate the laws of nature to FORCE it to happen.
Did we learn nothing from Hitler’s attempt to create a master race? My God, it was a grotesque idea then and it is even more so now, we should know better. Ah, you might say, we aren’t creating a master race, we just want to make a baby like my aunt Bertha or my uncle Bob or like ME, I’m a nice person! All you are saying to me is instead of ONE Hitler, we will have thousands. Creating the world in THEIR image. It gives me the wee woolie willies just to think about it.
Why do you suppose in the natural world, there exist very clear barriers to the mixing of species that are too dissimilar? This is a safeguard for us.
Have you heard about the pigs that they are genetically altering so they can harvest organs that won’t be rejected by humans ? I learned in my junior year in high school about the dangers of viruses. Are these scientists unconcerned about cross over viruses from pigs to humans or vice versa ? Anybody heard of AIDS ???
Okay here comes a more nebulous aspect of the genetic engineering nightmare. When we start looking at all life on our planet as “raw material”, DNA, genetic “soup” and body parts and stop looking at it in a holistic way, we de-value life in all it’s forms across the board. We started down this road when we declared that abortion is a medical procedure to be performed on demand. Rather than a last resort if there is danger to the life of the mother. The slippery slope is real and we are rushing down that slope at breakneck speed. It’s what I call “frog in a blender” science.
It’s not a frog any more when you put it in a blender, it’s spare parts, dissolved, unrecognizable. Then when it’s “tissue” and stops being a frog, one can justify doing unthinkable things to it.
Well, the advocate of genetic engineering will say, I’m doing it to save lives. At what cost I ask you ? The devaluing of life in general ? Would you take as treatment for your disease the organs or cells of a human embryo that was created, used and then destroyed ? I would not, and I’ll tell you why. I believe in God. And I know that death is not the worst thing that can happen to a human being. Moral degeneration IS. If we redefine life to include killing our unborn children out of convenience or manipulating their cells to harvest them like a crop of wheat to repair our bodies, what kind of humans would be be ? And get this…. MUCH of the time those same bodies we are repairing have been ravaged by our own misuse of food, too much alcohol, drugs and smoking. Disease is a rotten part of life. And we should do all we can to prevent it and treat it, but using unborn babies to do it is INSANE !
If we go down this road, what kind of humans would we be ? Is this kind of life worth saving ? It removes the sacredness of life and replaces it with the god of ME. I do not want to live in such a world.
Each of these arguments could be elaborated on. What I have written here is an outline really. After all this is a diary, not a science journal, so I won’t go on and on. ( Too late, you say, on and on was three paragraphs ago. )
But don’t even GET me started on genetic manipulation in the plant realm. We have no idea what we are playing with. And some of those genies ( pun intended ) that are being let out of the bottle, are not going to go back in. Period.
It is amazing to me that we are trying to solve problems with technology that would be better solved by self-discipline. God told Adam to “tend the garden and keep it” Not to “rend the garden and put it together however it seems best to you.”
God help us, every one.
No, perhaps the proper thing to say is “forgive us. . .”