Human cloning is the wrong path to follow
February 17, 1998
The ideas on human cloning espoused by Dan Hickman’s column (Jan. 20) in the DE reveals the unfortunate blind reasoning of far too many people in our modern scientific age, when we think that scientific endeavor holds the answers to human problems.
The genesis of this type of human reasoning is outlined in brief form in the Biblical book of Genesis when Satan deceived Eve and both she and her husband Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So human science is a mixture of good and evil and many people don’t have the wisdom to discern the difference. It is with good reason that many theologians, politicians, scientists and the common man offer stalwart resistance to such so-called scientific and humanistic endeavors.
It is obvious that Hickman and other like-minded people don’t have any understanding as to why the human race exists on this earth and so they are willing to entertain the ridiculous ideas such as human cloning. Human cloning may become a reality at some point in time in some medical lab but it will not result in the type of world Hickman envisions. Imperfect human beings can not in a million years create other human beings that are perfect. However, Hickman is right about one thing, there are those that will try against all odds, even if they make a dirty mess in the process.
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The idea of creating a perfect human society whether through cloning or other concepts is not new and has been attempted in the past. All such attempts have failed and Hickman’s ideas would fare no better. Actually, his ideas are only a new story line in the same vein of the old Frankenstein movies. This perfect world which Mr. Hickman envisions will not come about through the cloning of human beings.
Hickman uses the word matrimony to refer to a marriage of cloning and genetic engineering as a solution to cure social ills. I would dare to think Hickman does not know the purpose of marriage between a man and a woman, other than to combine genes for reproduction or another generation of imperfect human beings. Marriage and family are of far greater value than that and are concepts that come to us from the creator and are not merely of humanistic thinking at all. Marriage and family have the power to teach us many important lessons about life some of which are love, forgiveness (when we’re imperfect), sharing, helping, serving and nurturing, only to list a few. These life-lessons can be taught and shared by four or five generations from the oldest to the youngest in a panoply of human emotions, endeavors and interests. These are all part of the imperfect world of humans we live in and are much more enriching to the human condition than the sterile world of clones Hickman paints for us. We can all be thankful that Hickman’s world of clones has nothing to do with our real future.
Then Hickman refers to the offspring of his futuristic clones as genetic material to be geared and molded by the government toward some useful function in society. As what? Slaves? I really think Hickman has been reading too many science fiction novels and that he should come back down to earth for some fresh air and a reality check!
One of the most stunning insights into Mr. Hickman’s shallow thinking is his idea that musicians, artists, and poets, which he likens to idle dreamers, will no longer be needed or desired in his visionary future world of cloned human beings. We can all be thankful Hickman himself is only an idle dreamer. A human being is not just a here is a spiritual component in each human brain that gives us intellect and the power to be idle dreamers if we want to be. It is also this spiritual component which enables us to worship God, who is Himself spirit, or to ignore his diving revelation to our own peril, which most of humanity has chosen to do by free will.
Much more could be said to refute the desirability of embarking on the slippery path of human cloning as Hickman has written but that would take a book.
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