Just on a side note, I do feel that one day death (not accidental death) will be eliminated. Meaning old age, sickness, etc…
Filmore
Those issues have nothing to do with cloning, they have to do with the ethics of removing the brain from another human being. Hell, if I were amoral enough to contemplate doing that, why would I choose a clone? I’d choose the most physically/genetically/aesthetically desirable 20-year old I could violate and stick my brain in him. I mean, if were theorizing successful brain transplants then we might as well theorize successful brain transplants with suppression of tissue rejectin issues (which I would think might be even easier in brain transplants, thanks to the blood:brain barrier.)
Filmore:
Yes, there are lots of psychopaths in the world. There are also lots of rich people in the world. But the intersection of that number is not as large as movies and TV might lead one to believe. There are also lots of doctors. In the future there may be doctors capable of performing brain transplants. How many of those doctors would also be willing to commit murder if offered enough money? I can’t imagine that top-notch brilliant neurosurgeons are going to be lining up to ruin their careers and get sent to prison for murder because some rich psychopath offered them a few million dollars.
How many psychopaths out there are rich enough to have a clone made, raise them until they are 20 years old, track down a doctor willing to commit murder for money, all the while keeping the whole enterprise secret enough that everyone in on the conspiracy isn’t sent to prison? The only people that spring to mind are a handfull of third world dictators.
But here’s the problem for these dictators. A dictator can order all these things. But how can he keep control when he is under sedation, and his pet psychopath neurosurgeon is removing his brain? Even assuming that the neurosurgeon needs the dictator’s continued survival, what prevents an ambitious general from declaring the dictator dead and taking over the country? If you keep the brain transplant secret, why would people suddenly start taking orders from this young man who looks a lot like the dictator used to? And wouldn’t it be the perfect time for an American invasion force?
Your scenario could convieably happen a few times. But the prospect of dictators routinely using this technique to make themselves immortal strikes me as not very worrisome.
It seems to me that all the problems the opponents of cloning come up with are not cloning problems at all. They are only problems if we decide to give up our civil rights, allow slavery, condone murder for profit, or give up total control of our lives to a psychopathic dictator. If we do that, then we will be facing horrible problems. The added problems that cloning might add to the mix are miniscule compared to the problems of living under a totalitarian dictatorship, or living in a society that routinely denies human rights to large numbers of people. The problems then don’t come from cloning. Cloning presents no new ethical problems.
I, too, think that cloning is no big deal. However, I do think it opens some interesting new legal issues.
What about someone making a clone of another person against their will? You find a clump of Tiger Woods’ hair on the golf course and create a clone from it. This is not a crasy idea, as I’m certain someone will do this if they can.
Someone creates a clone of you, and you figure it out when the clone is a 2 month old fetus. Do you have the right to require an abortion?
We can tackle these things, but I don’t think our current legal system is ready to deal with this.
Unfortunately, ignorance breeds these kinds of “ethics” debates. There are two real problems with cloning.
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How you define human life. If you define it as the smallest form of “human life” aka embryo, then cloning theoretically requires hundreds of embryos to be thrown out. This isn’t an issue if you don’t consider an embryo as a human life.
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Birth defects. There is a large possibility for defects in clones, and the trials haven’t been completed. Nothing worse than getting a defective baby.
Those are the only two issues with cloning.
Sure, this may have scientific repurcussions, but I think that cloning Dolly had more of an impact on our world, because this is just doing something that has already been done. The media also isn’t helping with the image that a clone will be virtually identical to someone. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. They are portraying the scientists as evil, and they are “unbiased.” BS. The media has always been biased. Sure, I’m not exactly condoning what they’ve done, but sooner or later, someone was going to do it.
Unfortunately, Cloning, maybe not of humans, but cloning of something will be common practice in 50 years. We could effectively eliminate world hunger through cloning. Eliminate many diseases, make instant transplants readily available, with 100% acceptance. These are all things that can be accomplished through cloning.
In short, they have done nothing too special. The only people raising a fuss about this are the religious fanatics.
Y’all do know that a lab in Israel has managed to clone wholly funtional kidneys, don’t you?
—The only people raising a fuss about this are the religious fanatics.—
This statement is factually incorrect. Many people who aren’t religious fanatics have raised a fuss about this.
—The Raelians believe the Raelian Movement Leader – former French journalist Claude Vorilhon who now calls himself Rael – is a direct descendant of these aliens. He says he has met with aliens and visited their planet.—
Obvious question here: why don’t the aliens just teach us how to clone if they care so much? Why don’t they make themselves known to everyone, and not just Rael?
Well this little black duck - who has spent many long hours campaigning to get our government to allow therapeutic cloning (with a moderate degree of success) - is totally opposed to reproductive cloning AT THIS POINT IN TIME.
I don’t want it banned, but I do want a moratorium imposed on reproductive cloning until it can meet the same standards we would apply to a drug company seeking approval for their product.
Sorry, I know that I’m being a bit bitchy about this issue. Up until a few days ago we had ideal laws in this country - embryonic stem cell research was strictly regulated and only allowed to be carried out on excess embyos from IVF (with the consent of the putative parents). If the puritans of this world have their way, we won’t even be able to grow skin for skin grafts anymore - technically, the process of growing skin is “human cloning”".
Bugger, bugger, shit, poop, fuck.
Sometimes, ignorance DOES win the day. 
What I want to know, is where the heck are all the failures the Raels would have had? This scares me. Badly.
E-Sabbath:
I’m not particularly scared. If they actually were attempting human cloning they wouldn’t be able to keep the failures secret. The absence of failures indicates that they did not actually clone a baby.
Actually, It wasn’t a swastica. It was the reverse of a swastica, which was an ancient buddist symbol for “Good Luck”, if I remember correctly.
Uhm so who has a lock of Britney Spears hair? I’ll take a few dozen clones of her…
I doubt you could clone someone (assuming Britney, is indeed, human) from the hair. At the very least, you’d need the sheath cells from the roots–the hair itself is keratin (a protein) and thus useless for cloning.
to answer the first question “has our world changed forever”
yes.humans being the stupid overenthusiastic types, we will let this get out of control (as always).so meaning as for us natural born humans,we are all screwed.but its ok cuz we will clone the great minds of today,and they will figure out how to make artifical intellegence,then the machines will get smart and wage war on the clones.so in the end cats and dogs will rule the earth again. cloning is just one more step towards self destruction.
you damn dirty apes