Not exactly a GQ
So, the recent hub-bub has me thinking. We talk about how clones are like identical twins, right? This is supposed to be comforting to the masses, but I am an identical twin- the second born. Now, I assume that the anxiety some have about cloning people has to do with playing God, making people without souls, the nature of the soul, etc., etc. I am uncertain about this whole soul business to begin with, but throughout life friends have jokingly asked which of us has the soul and which doesn’t, etc. etc.
I never really considered this until recently, when I started considering my ontological status as ‘clone’, and I realised that there is something to this. I am not Christian, so I don’t know what the various sects have for an official stance on this, but is it true that the general belief is that the soul enters at conception (this seems to be one of the issues in the abortion debate)? Since an identical twin set’s egg splits after this conception, did one of the twins miss out on the big moment? Which of the twins would be the one that lacks a soul? Does western society have an opinion on this sort of thing? What is my status in western cultural terms? Am I an automaton?
Just curious.
“I went away to see an old friend of mine,
his sister came over; she was out of her mind.
She said “Jesus had a twin, who knew nothing about sin.”
She was laughing like crazy, at the trouble I’m in.”
(per Sonic Youth)
Hmm. Over the last day I’ve been reading a bit on this, and learned that the twins can split as late as 12 days after conception. So there has to be a loophole in the ‘life from moment of conception’ thing, right? Unless. . . I feel like the guy at the end of Angelheart. . .
Maybe this does belong in GD.
capybara, you may just have to start hanging out with pro-choicers like me, who believe that you get your soul (assuming the soul exists as a separate entity) at some unspecified time during development. Come on, though, if you believe that God can endow you with a soul at the moment of conception, why couldn’t He split it along with the zygote or make an extra one for the “new” person?
If you’re really worrying about this, it’s definitely a GD. I consider it to be along the lines of debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, though, so for me it’s MPSIMS.
I’m a Christian and fairly twitchy on the womb side of things, but I don’t really see that there’s a problem with cloning, in theory. It’s a twin, right? That’s all. Just another person (like that’s not trouble enough!).
The problem will be with the death issue. If they are facilitating the creation of life with a soul, then cutting it off to harvest stem cells, organs etc. Of course God’s got it all in hand. It’s we who might do harm.