Here is a possible dilemma concerning religion (esp Christian) and I'm curious. What are the moral implications of cloning humans?

I will address the questions that can actually be answered – are they cloning humans yet? no, can DNA be altered? yes, by way of switching on or off certain genes.

Personally I would say that no one has a spirit, but im guessing the claim would be either a) they are monsters with no soul or b) they some how share a soul with the original or c) the soul is also cloned some how.

as for the clone being created by god, the answers would be a) no, they are monsters with no soul, or b) yes they are created by god as he/she/it created the laws of our reality that allowed cloning. or perhaps c) they are a work of the devil.

are humans being cloned yet? not that I know of. (allowing for spooky secret super soldier experiments)

can DNA be altered? yes.

This is assuming you believe in a God thus the religious part. Also I’m not so sure someone in this world is not cloning humans but reguardless they have the technoloy to do so.

@JustmeAman They do, do they? This topic interests me immensely – I’d love to know who has the technology to clone humans and why they’re not doing so already.

Clones were not created by God.

Clones do not have souls.

No, they are not cloning humans yet.

Non-cloned people were also not created by God and do not have souls.

What have we already cloned @Simone_De_Beauvoir. The same process by which the sheep were cloned would be used for humans. Not sure if they are beyond failure to this point but technology is there to complete the process. Do you think we know all that is going on in this world and for that matter here in the USA or any other country?

@crazyivan my above statement says this is assuming you believe in God.

@JustmeAman No, I don’t think we know all of which goes on (not as much as you know about god’s personal DNA profile, anyway) but I won’t for a second believe that someone wouldn’t have tried selling the hell out of this technology for profit’s sake only. Same goes for cure for AIDS and cancer – if it’s out there, they’d be selling it. Humans are more complex than sheep (though seems otherwise sometimes).

@Simone_De_Beauvoir

Oh I understand you not believing any of this and as I stated it is my reality one in which a lifetime of study and experience has been brought to me. But the question is of curiousity to me as to how others think especially Christians.

My bad… well I don’t believe in God, but this flowchart might help:

God created Man—> Man created Cloning—> God created Cloning.

(It works for transformers…)

If you believe in God and that each human has a soul, then the clone is the physical being, and he/she would be given a soul at whenever you believe the souls enters the body, birth, conception, whatever the belief is.

@JLeslie Interesting and this is a good answer. Thanks

You have heard about the scientists that found a frozen whole woolly mammoth and how science is talking of cloning that animal? Once the genome is finished it will be very possible.

This is part of an article from http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/sciencetech/cloning-the-woolly-mammoth/4198

You don’t know this, but your life is empty and missing something important. You need a woolly mammoth in the living room, and on a leash to take shopping. There will be a range of sizes to choose from, mammoths to order from miniatures for condos to 17 ft tall behemoths that will live on your ranch. In November 2008, a team of scientists at Pennsylvania State University reported they had sequenced a large fraction of the mammoth genome. The genome of any living species is the DNA genes which make up the chromosomes that reside in the nucleus of every cell and if we have that, then we might be able recreate the entire beast. We are on the road that leads to cloning a woolly mammoth.

@JustmeAman I am thinking you might not be up to date on the science of cloning and where it stands right now. You might be interested in this

@JLeslie

Look up Human Cloning. In Theory it is supposed to work but according to most things I’ve read it has not been done. Though some speculate that it has and there have been attempts with failure. It is illegal in the States and many other countries but laws are broken all the time.

@JustmeAman there is trouble with most cloning. From what I understand it never works the first time, many failures, and the animals live shorter lives. Pretty much I am against cloning animals.

@JLeslie Some are working on growing parts for us as we get sick and need something new. If you do look up Human Cloning it is discussed.

@JustmeAman I am fine with parts and cellular cloning, just not a whole animal. If it can have a brain and consciousness, I don’t like the idea.

I don’t think anyone can answer about souls and spirits and stuff, not really…but I think the best way to check the moral issue would be to inspect the motive for wanting to produce clones. Ever seen Moon? >_>

If we manage to clone people, do you not think it is part of God’s plan? I know this seems like some sort of roundabout logic, but think about it.

I suppose God also wants us to wage war, deal drugs and rape people.

@Symbeline That is a rather far leap. Deal drugs maybe yes, but the other two are probably no.

Jess sayin’, maybe it’s a free will thing.

Ahhh…interesting. Maybe it is indeed a Free Will thing!

We can do what what we want, but should we? I guess that’s where the moral implications the asker asked about come in. I don’t know what they are, besides the obvious. But apparently I guess it gets much more complicated than black and white.

Intention determines the moral implications. What are the intentions of those cloning humans. To what purpose do they want to use the cloned people?

Well yeah; that’s precisely the point I was making in my first post. Do you send them to work in your stead? What reason is there to make a clone? I think that would be a good place to start.
Cloning isn’t akin to murder or rape, but I’m sure we can find some creative ways to use it for ill.

As I understand it, Christians would understand a clone to have its own soul, just as identical twins have individual souls.

And the main concern about cloning is, what would be the quality of life for the clone (will the clone be allowed autonomy, or simply be raised for harvesting)? Right now as I understand it, the big push for cloning humans would be to harvest them for parts, which to me, is simply a hideous way to conduct business.

Great answer and morally I do not agree with cloning and all that we could do. Just because we can doesn’t me we should. THANKS

And as some folks say, it would be nice to have a slave someone available so they could go in and work for them, etc. That also is a reprehensible reason to use cloning on humans. In fact, I cannot think of ONE decent reason to allow it.

@snowberry

I agree but there are a couple of ways they talk of cloning. One would be to provide a body and then transplant the brain of a person so that person could live for many more years than we currently do and the other would be what we normally think and that is just duplication of the DNA and not the person. I think we step into territory we have no idea what the cause and effect will be. Not to mention the morality of it.

By my reckoning, it is the soul that has a body, not the other way around. So if the clone’s sentience is on par with a regular human, then I’d say that they probably have a soul.
This is a problem that we could very, very easily avoid, like the AI problem.

You might like Robert Heinlein’s work. Atheist to the core, but he did like him some cloning for brain transplants.

What are the moral implications of a clone forgetting who he or she is?

@Chrissie There’s nothing for a clone to forget. Memories are not genetic.