Yeah, I'm not saying it's a good idea, it's just the main reason I've heard. I see it as kind of immoral, and also we can 3D print organs kinda, so it doesn't really work as a reason any more.
Imagine this - A 10 year old kid dies, and the parents clone that kid to get a ''new'' kid (we'll call it neo). Just because the kid and neo look the same, and might have some of the same traits, what the neo likes/dislikes might be different due to different friends, a different time, perhaps a different environment if they moved house. The parents might resent that neo as they cloned their kid to fill the loss, but in realizing their neo is nothing like their kid. That might put the neo into the care system, perhaps after being hurt or neglected badly, putting more kids/neo into the care system and putting a heavy pressure. Some other parents might resent adopting a neo, and then their quality of life will be decline. Another thing, notice how I called 'neo' not 'kid', I did this for understanding purposes of my speech, but imagine if people use this to discriminate and segregation. [Quoting RainDreamer] ''I also imagine this can be a great way for LGBT couple to have a genetic child to them.'' They can already do this, but the children can only be female as a sperm is created out of one of the female parent's bone marrow. Not sure where they are with males though.
Well... Thank you for sharing this intriguing article.... If doppelgangers are cultivated, then there will be several benefits but much more detrimental effects, depending on one's perspective. As Secret stated, the doppelgangers can place quite a burden on the care system and ethical and moral concerns will be generated in general. Furthermore, the doppelgangers may play a role as the societal renegade factor. Regardless of the era in which the cultivation of doppelgangers is finally allowed, there will be inevitable changes. This is a rare scenario, but what would occur if a legitimate hermaphrodite decided to utilize her doppelganger for reproductive purposes? Also, in response to Secrets' answer, the parents may neglect the neo child because she is not their biological offspring.
The thing is that you can use clones to create pieces of your body that you normally can't transplant, such as an arm or a leg. Since it's identical to your own, there's no tissue rejection. With technological advancements, you can use cloning techniques to clone only individual body parts or create a duplicate of you that's not really alive. This way, you're not cloning a life--you're making spare parts. I really don't see the problem with making clones that never had an awareness, never will have an awareness and never even physically could in the first place. That's not a sentient creature, it's a heap of flesh and there's no reason to see it as anything else. Population in many countries is actually in decline. In many modern countries, every woman needs to carry an average of 2.1 children to maintain its population and most modern women just don't. Having children doesn't appear to appeal to most people any more.
I completely agree with Skaros. I'm against cloning humans because it is so immoral and on another thing, I really don't like the idea of robots. They're meant to be smart and I'm sure if they do come into effect then they will take over the world.
I'd love to make some clones of myself, lots of them, really. I'm all for the idea as a way for people to have kids, who don't want to go the normal route. Plus, if I make enough, I could take over and rule the world!
This raises moral issues. Are these clones vacant and 'souless' or do they think and are conscious? Are they like syths in fallout or what?
There are too many humans already. The toll on the environment is too much. Also, will these clones legally be "people" or "animals" or something else? Will they be owned by people or live independent lives? If a clone commits a violent crime, will both be tracked down and locked up? How could clones claim ownership of property if they are identical in every way to someone else who claims to own that property? For organ transplants, I think that more research into molecular 3D printing would have fewer drawbacks and fewer moral challenges.
I think there's a misunderstanding of what cloning is. It's not weird science that creates "soulless" or otherwise unthinking zombie-like humans. They are regular people, even born from a regular uterus like the rest of us. The difference is that instead of letting the sperm and egg fertilize normally, they manually insert the complete DNA into the process for a predictable result. If you clone a person, he or she will be no stranger than anyone else, save for having over-mature DNA that degrades sooner than normal. As for cloning body parts instead of full people, that's actually a great idea. But I'd still be against creating cloned humans only because it's unfair to them.
Reminds me of Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion. Excellent book and it touches on the downsides of this concept. Protagonist is a clone who's bred for organ donations.
I don't see anything wrong with the process in itself, science is in itself a neutral aspect: More or less a tool. It's what would be done with it that matters in this sense. A hammer can be used to build a home, or crack a skull if you get the analogy. I feel like such a thing should be researched and kept locked away for when it becomes neccecary, hidden from the prying eyes of those who would abuse it. If it is ignored now, it is likely to come again in a later time, exept with less scienctific data to keep it stable.
As the article says - the technology is available. Nothing is stopping some group of scientist to do it so they can claim themselves to be the first to clone human, except fear of public backlash. So if no one knew about it...maybe they already did it.
Yeah, there are quite a few good books like that. My mom & sister recently read a book they said was nice called Never Let Me Go. Also, the 2nd-most-middlemost section of Cloud Atlas touches on that. To me, harvesting organs without consent is a terrible heinous crime, but its just a going reason. I agree with the concept of cloning in some theoretical circumstances, but in reality, it will always be morally difficult. Lots of people in this thread have brought up interesting points.