Incident: They Just announced the Cloning of a sheep. Scientists replaced the DNA of one sheep by extracting the DNA in an egg and replacing it with the DNA of another. Apparently this was done two years ago and the sheep is Ba-Ba-ba’ing all the way home, along with the scientists and moral gatekeepers.

Thoughts: What is being discussed now is the importance of the accomplishment. Cloning another living thing… an animal, an artifact i.e. Jurassic Park?, and of course the final thought of cloning a human being. Of course this discussion has been in focus in various science fiction/futurist books, but now it is a fact with animals. Beyond the obvious benefits of having prime animals a lot sooner than the continuing process of selective breeding, and beyond the general implications of a standard, identical clone without the unique characteristics of an individual animal, this could be a real disaster. The temptation initially would be to only clone those that benefit the society the most, … that is, of course, depending upon your point of view. It could range from Mother Teresa to Einstein to Socrates to the ideal steelworker who is strong, hearty and implanted with a gene limiting the damage done by chemical fumes. Would we even want 1,000 mother Teresas roaming the planet pointing up the lack of caring in the third world counties. Or would the 1.000 Einsteins be out of ideas. They were smart and beyond most in intelligence, but then everything is relative. The typical senior, with luck, in today’s high school would give the older more experienced caveman a run for his money, certainly in technical things, but in the philosophy in living? Could the 1,000 Einsteins come up with the new innovated theories that the original did or would they only be able to repeat the same thoughts. Would they have the same thought patterns, although raised in different environments, and arrive at the same conclusions or be creative in other fields of endeavor. Would all 1,000 of them arrive at the same theory of E=MC² just as 1,000 Mother Teresas would expose the world of depression and hunger or would she /they find other avenues of endeavor. Could the military clone the universal solders and what would the reasoning be for another country NOT to do the same. The Nuclear bomb was once controlled by the USA and is now in the hands of the third world countries and questionable as to the motivations of each nuclear powered country. Finally what would, as some reporter noted, prevent a 1,000 Sadam Hussans running around the globe. Maybe create a 1,000 Kadafy’s to balance out the power struggle. It certainly won’t be prevented by the cost of cloning nor the restrictions on the information as we’ve seen with the nuclear bombs., so what would prevent the nefarious & infamous one’s from continuing on. Could they clone children just in case one accidentally dies, or create a clone as a backup for any parts that might be lost or needed for the original to continue on. New hearts, livers, replacement limbs muscles and what would be the moral decisions on the clones themselves. Do they not have rights also? We seem to be having our problems with the Abortionists, just think what they could do with an 18 year old "Born Again Human"… And identity crisis of major proportions. How could you tell one from the other, finger prints, irises, DNA? And who would own their particular DNA? …. the original person, or the clone? Could a down-and-out person with a particular unique gene, sell their uniqueness to a company wanting to clone it to create another type individual?… and keep running off copies like a Xerox Machine. And like a Xerox Machine copy would the repetitive copy be blurred or flawed, land then what would happen to those copies….

Conclusion: Although is certainly is a great achievement to clone a living organisms, I don’t believe that the world is quite ready for the repercussions of doing so. The animal and plant world would be the initial targets of this process, but some third world country that can afford to buy the technologies required (assuming that it isn’t to difficult to grab a DNA strand and implant it since they are already doing the gene splicing) might be willing to experiment on humans. This is inevitable and what is also inevitable is the change of the moral fiber of the human race. Do we allow those opportunists to develop clones and dictate the outcome? We have no choice, it can be delayed but eventually it will happen. It is the constant development and striving of the human condition that dictates continued search beyond the current boundaries. There have been disasters in the past and will be more in the future……. And so it goes……..