To Clone or Not to Clone

United States
March 30, 2007 8:00pm CST
I had the dream again last night. It's not always exactly the same but has so many of the same elements it might as well be a rerun. I'm with my family at one of our family functions, this time a reunion at my brothers house. My dad was there, so was my oldest sister. Both looked good; they were charming, witty, enigmatic. My sister was dressed as befit a career woman, CEO of a large corporation. Dad was cracking jokes, being the stereotypical grandpa. The odd thing, though, is both of them are dead, have been for 23 years. Dad was never stereotypical and my sister was never a career woman, though she certainly had the potential if she had been able to overcome a chauvanistic upbringing and a controlling husband. Always after I dream about them, I wake up feeling a little off. See it always occurs to me that science is fast approaching, or may already be at, the point where they can clone humans. How far of a leap, then, would it be to clone a dead person, to bring them back to life so to speak. The lock of hair in my sister's baby book, my dad's dentures still with that little bit of blood from biting his tongue during his stroke. Could these contain the DNA necessary to start the cloning process? And if it did, would I want them to? I miss both of them even after all these years, still well up with tears when I think about them. But would I want them brought back to life through cloning? First, it goes against my religion. God created man. Should man try to one-up God? Second, would it actually be them? Would they have intelligence? the same personality? the same memories? Or would they be a vegetable, incapable of learning, of taking care of themselves. Would I be obligated to care for them for life, or to make the decision to euthanize them? I keep flashing on two books, Stephen Kings "Pet Semetary" where people are brought back to life, but they are evil. And "The Stepford Wives" where science upgrades women and makes them compliant and obedient without minds of their own or free will. Third, if they were intelligent, functioning beings, what would their status be? Would they be considered citizens? Would they now be the widow and widower of the spouses they left behind, now deceased? Could they collect Social Security, life insurance benefits, etc? Would we return the money, jewelry and real property inherited by their heirs? Or would they be destitute? These are just some of the questions running through my head. I feel disloyal to say, no I would not want my loved ones cloned. But I also fear what Pandora's box we would open if we tried. What do you think?
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