[cincinnati65]

The key here in your comment is "naturally-occurring" - as in (according to my beliefs) "God-intended". Now, we have "artificially-occurring" cloning, with man stepping into the role of God. The question is: Who supplies the soul?

[Ramius]

Man is not stepping into the role of God. Man does not create life, he merely arranges the place and the hour where it begins. The process still belongs to God.

That being said... we have no business doing it. It is vanity on our part and nothing more. People only want to do it to prove that they can. There is no purpose to it, and no need for it. It's not like we *need* more people around here... that's for sure.

[Technogeeb]

Now, we have "artificially-occurring" cloning, with man stepping into the role of God. The question is: Who supplies the soul?

One school of thought asserts that the soul is formed at the point of conception. While the technique may change in the future, I believe that the current cloning process uses an egg that has been previously fertilized (and thus has a soul) after which the genetic material is removed and replaced with that from the clone DNA donor (being a "true" clone only if the clone DNA donor is also the egg donor, since otherwise there will be differences in mitochondrial DNA).

It would seem reasonable to assume that the clone retains the previously existing soul, since all that has happened is a "DNA transplant" (and in the same way that a person who gets a kidney transplant and a heart transplant and a lung transplant and as many other organs as can be named doesn't lose any of his soul, neither would the new child, regardless of the extent of the "transplant").

Of course, using this logic the "clone" is the victim of medical malpractice, in the same way someone who was the recipient of an unnecessary organ transplant would be, unless the DNA transfer was absolutely necessary to prevent or correct some otherwise inevitable genetic disease.

[Mike4Freedom]

The question is: Who supplies the soul?

Other than your faith, how do you know that a soul actually exists? What evidence is there?