I watched The Island last weekend for the first time. (if you haven't seen it yet, check out http://www.cinemas-online.co.uk/films/island.fhtml for a quick synopsis) My question is, would you ever be OK with having a clone made of you? Let's say this "clone" lived in a contained facility, like in The Island, or, better yet, what if your clone lived in a "vat" a la The Matrix? Would you be OK with it then? Would your decision to have a clone made of you or not depend on if the "thing" actually "lived" in a "real" environment? Would you want a clone if "it" simply remained in some big tub and only had to be messed with when you needed a new organ or new skin or new teeth?
posted by bemily at 12:04 PM
4 Comments:
In my opinion, one would never be able to justify creating a clone for spare parts. I would much rather put the money/research into growing just the organ you need...or better yet, stimulating your body to grow a new one. This seems plausible--we would just have to get the cells to start dividing again (i.e. make the kidney cells regenerative like the liver cells--but even more so). Nerves were thought to be totally unregenerative. That has been shown to be a major fallacy. There is new and more hope for spinal cord injuries, etc.
I also watched that movie awhile back for Contemporary Moral issues and one of the questions that it arose for me was whether or not creating a clone, considering that the clones never reached sentience, for the parts was really any different than just growing the organs. From a certain perspective I would view that clone's kidney as my own because it is my DNA and the clone doesn't have a mind or a soul, he's just an extension of my own body, no different than my big toe, does anyone else see any truth to this line of thinking?
I think that I need to know more about the scientific process of cloning in order to being fully sure of my standpoint in this issue. Is the process of lab cloning that much different that what takes place inside of a woman? Beats me. It leads to the questioning of when the soul inhabits the body or is created by god to enter the body, or what ever you believe. If you believe that god creates the soul at time of conception and what not, than you cant believe that clones can have soul because according to that belief humans cant create souls. This is all alot of "ifs" and peoples differing relgious views affecting what they believe. I admit that I would be curious to see what happens when mankind successfully clones a human. Oh and to answer the Island question: No I would not make a clone for my self, and I agree with g'rans ideas.
I never suggested that the clones in the movie did not have souls. I was suggesting that if the clones did not reach consciousness or self-awareness then I would see the clone as a shell, think of a hermit crab: the shell is just something for the crab to use as it needs, the shell is an inanimate object the same as a clone that is only grown for parts, if the clone is never allowed to reach that point of higher thought then I can easily see it as being just another shell for me to use when I need a spare part.
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