Channel Button

There are 6 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #5 by Helium's members.

Sciences   >

Cellular Biology

Get a Widget for this title

Understanding genetic modification

HUMAN CLONING AND HUMAN HYBRIDS- A FEW POINTS

If there's one certainty on this Earth at the moment, it's that some delightful person will try cloning a human being.

Whoopee! The world's first truly illegal human! There's a healthy precedent.

The fact is that a cloned human wouldn't even have a clear legal status, or anything resembling. So far their legal definition is something (not someone) that's not supposed to happen. So quite apart from the vagaries of the technology, and the dubious mentalities of those trying to produce this wonderful "non-person", they're outside any legal protection. If you were looking for a definitive case of someone who "didn't ask to be born", here it is.

Add to this delightful picture the fact that someone grown rather than born is likely to have all the information resources of a lab rat, or perhaps less, and a real breakthrough in creating new forms of human suffering is quite probable. The same high levels of intellect which have produced the outworker culture and the sex slave industry are perfectly capable of making some innovations with a person with absolutely no legal status.

Humans without normal social supports like a family are historically a resource which finds a use for itself in wars, crime, and other things which have done so much to enhance life on Earth. The Ottoman Janissaries, the African child armies, and a healthy percentage of the populations of brothels, jails, and graveyards, have all come from a much harder-to-get sources than cloned humans. It is a regular feature of history that the outcast, vulnerable, populations are used in this way. It's been happening for millennia.

Meaning someone can probably will find a way of making human clones a serious problem, for "natural" humans and for the clones themselves. These would be real expendable human beings, and if you think war, terrorism and organized crime are fun now, how much more so can they get?

Consider the possibilities of a cloned human, with a nuclear weapon, pointed at a target. The clone has none of the perspectives of a "normal" human. Doesn't really need them, either, as far as "it" knows. Very basic indoctrination would simply identify normal humans as enemies. So would a social environment in which they have no rights, and can be shown that they have no rights. Therefore, the human race really isn't their peer group, and has no claims on their loyalty or sympathies.

I would suggest that in a world where you can routinely wire a kid to go and blow


Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Understanding genetic modification

  • 1 of 6

    by George Efstathiou

    Genetic modification is the use of molecular techniques to alter the genetic information of an organism (bacterium, plant

    read more

  • 2 of 6

    by Priya Kannath

    Every Living organism such as plants and animals consist of cells. Cells contain genes encoded on strands of DNA. Genetic

    read more

  • 3 of 6

    by Indu Sastri

    Genetic modification is the process of altering the organisms genetic material to acquire new traits. This process is being

    read more

  • 4 of 6

    by Neil Wagner

    Human mediated genetic modification of crops has been going on since the first agriculturist crossed two different species

    read more

  • 5 of 6

    by Paul Wallis

    HUMAN CLONING AND HUMAN HYBRIDS- A FEW POINTS

    If there's one certainty on this Earth at the moment, it's that some delightful

    read more

View All Articles on:
Understanding genetic modification

Add your voice

Know something about Understanding genetic modification?
We want to hear your view. Write_penWrite now!

Helium Debate

Cast your vote!

Should men be allowed to be pregnant and conceive babies?

Click for your side.

128686

Featured Partner

Text and Academic Authors Association

The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) is the only authoring association devoted exclusively to serving text...more

What is Helium? | Buy Web Content | Contact Us | Privacy | User agreement | DMCA | User Tools | Help | Community | Helium’s Official Blog | Link to Helium

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA