Posted on 01/03/2003 9:28:23 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Human cloning: it's the soul, stupid
Regardless of whether a cloned human being was actually born as claimed, our society should use this disturbing report constructively by hastening our ethical evaluation of human cloning.
If the Raelien cult's claim is false, it's only a matter of time before it happens. After all, the Raeliens are not the only ones engaged in this horrifying enterprise. A fertility clinic in Italy and an embryology laboratory in Kentucky also claim to be close.
Brigitte Boisselier, president of Clonaid, the human cloning company engineering this process, appears to be right out of "The Addams Family" or "Munsters" TV series. And the Raelien cult, with which Boisselier is associated, believes that the human race was begun by extraterrestrials some 25,000 years ago. But we shouldn't let the comical aspects of this insanity overshadow its grave implications.
In all seriousness, just who do we think we are? Are we so self-absorbed as a species; have we become so coarse, so vulgar, so narcissistic that we can't recognize that our scientific capacity exponentially exceeds our moral maturity? Shouldn't we come to grips with where we've put God in this equation?
While we may have made scientific advancements of godlike proportions, there is one of God's prerogatives we'll never have the remotest license to, and that is His authority over our souls. We should fear His judgment as we erect the ultimate Tower of Babel in usurping His sovereign power to create humankind by duplicating babies as if from a Xerox copy machine.
When are we going to take the time to have this moral discussion? A perfect illustration of how casually we've approached this subject is that the one body claiming to have authority over the legality of cloning is the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read that this paragon of unelected bureaucracies, the FDA, contends that it is the body that must approve any procedure aimed at human cloning.
The more scientific advancements we make, the greater will be the temptation to ignore their moral consequences, because these advancements will bring seductive promises of ever-increasing benefits to the human condition.
Our opinions on this issue will emanate from our respective worldviews. Since I am a Christian I won't presume to speak for others, but my understanding of the Bible compels me to conclude that human cloning is utterly violative of God's law. Other Christians may disagree.
The Bible reveals that God created us in His image and that He desires a personal relationship with us. We cannot attain a relationship with Him without humbling ourselves and surrendering to Him. By creating human life through cloning we have done just the opposite in the grossest imaginable outworking of human pride and the greatest conceivable affront to God. We have not only put other gods before Him; we have made ourselves those gods.
The Clonaid group says its purpose is to achieve immortality by creating carbon copies of humans, then "uploading" the contents of the original person's brain into the clone. Nothing better demonstrates their contrasting worldview.
Aside from the fantastic notion that they can upload brain contents and personal experiences from one brain to another ala Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie "Total Recall," how are they going to create a true continuity of consciousness? What happens when two identical beings coexist? How do they avoid the pain and horror of repeated physical death in their little immortality scenario?
Much more significantly, they are neglecting that little detail we refer to as the soul. Cloning advocates such as Clonaid can't possibly believe in the biblical concept that God creates unique human souls in His own image. Even assuming they can precisely duplicate a human being physically, what about his spiritual aspect? Will he/it have a soul? This is humanism at its most obscene. We are just masses of tissue to be manipulated and reformulated at will -- our will.
When the God of the Bible tells us through the prophet Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart," I think He's referring to our souls, our essences, not our yet to be fully formed brains. It is a chilling thought that His Jeremiah statement may not apply to beings that He did not form in the womb but that human scientists did.
We better quit ignoring these pressing moral issues, because we can be sure that science is not going to wait for us to catch up.
So is the creation of the soul a physical process resulting from the combination of egg and sperm? Otherwise you'd have to say that everytime in-vitro fertilization is perfomed God creates a new soul to put into the new zygote.
Definitely not a physical process (souls ain't physical) and not resulting from but concommitent with the physical combination of egg and sperm.
everytime in-vitro fertilization is perfomed God creates a new soul to put into the new zygote.
Why do you think our Church still opposes in-vitro fertilization?
If no human soul is provided by God, then another opportunistic animating force will fill the vacuum.
So non-human animals are demon possessed? You don't own a cat do you?
I do not agree with this. Identical twins by definition are two new lives spontaneously springing forth from one fertilized egg at one definite moment in time, a new unique DNA code drawn from 1/2 the DNA code from dad and 1/2 the DNA code from mom.
A clone is simply a continuation of DNA replication from an already existing donor, no 1/2 the DNA code from dad and 1/2 the DNA code from mom, not spontaneously springing forth from one fertilized egg at one definite moment in time, a new unique DNA code.
Imagine it: take a piece of skin from your forearm, separate out a single cell, remove its DNA.
Get an egg from some woman. Pull the 1/2 the DNA code from her from the nucleus of this egg.
Insert the DNA from your forearm.
Under the influence of chemicals, that egg is tricked into undergoing division.
Its subsequently implanted into a willing recepticle and born several months later.
Can you honestly say its simply your twin?
Its not your twin.
Its your clone.
And since our DNA is preprogrammed to only divide a concrete number of times, and since portions of the DNA of fully differentiated are never completely "switched on" your poor clone is doomed to an early death, whether by premature aging or early onset of strange deformities and pathologies.
Oh, just in case my theory is correct, and he has no soul, he's going to be gunning for you regarding the premature aging or early onset of strange deformities and pathologies. Hope he's got that filial love shared by twins, and not the sociopathic tendencies of those perfectly possessed...
All this is hypothetical, of course ;-)
Yes. Proof positive of your querry ;-)
"Burn the clone! Burn the clone!"
Well this is limitation of current technology and science. Some work is being done on understanding how to "reset" DNA but first we have to understand the mechanisms for how is it set.
Of course I believe they have souls. Just as twins have souls.
God can't give clones souls if he gives them to people born from IVF?
Depends on how God made the world. He made all the Laws of Nature as well as the Natural Law.
He supplies the soul when a human is conceived according to the Laws of Nature as well as the Natural Law, i.e., sperm and egg coming together. (The fact that they come together in a way that violates another part of the Natural Law in the course of IVF is the basis for its illicit nature.)
On the other hand, cloning is a fundamental violation of Natural Law, and such a large deviation from it that I do not feel God is bound to give clones souls even if he does gives them to people born from IVF.
This is only my personal opinion and is not intended to represent "Catholic" opinion. I do not think the Church has spoken on this issue.
Obviously you do not read the silly religious extremist dogma correctly.
Try to be more vigilant, and feel free to play again some time.
Gen 1:21
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:24
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Gen 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Numbers 9:6
And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:
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relevant NT verses:
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit , and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Revelation 16:3
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
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Anyone care to offer an opinionated explanation?
I will simply ask you... If you met a clone and saw that it talked to you, laughed with you, cried with you, and mourned with you would you deny it inclusion in the human race? Would you defend it's life? Would it yours?
As far as Catholicism goes, I guess once the process is more-or-less perfected, it will probably accept it as it managed to accept heliocentrism.
WOW. I'm speechless.
traditional theological concepts don't make much sense to me
understatement here...
Oh my. Am I logged on?
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