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Good or Bad?This is an issue I ponder sometimes. It amazes me really. To be able to take a being's DNA and replicate it to create an identical duplicate of that being, it sounds like science fiction. But it's possible and is being done. The areas of this subject that really get my mind turning are all the possibilities that it opens up. Like gene splicing, or xenotransplants. Currently many humans must receive animal parts and the body rejects it because it's not the same makeup. A xenotransplant is a transplanted body part from an animal to a human. Transgenic parts are where the cells of the animal part have been injected with cells from the person in order to confuse the body's immune system into recognizing the new part as it's own. There is a very informative article about this in Popular Science magazine. (October 1999 p.68) If cloning is already being done, then it's just a matter of time before hybridization will become common practice. Can you imagine the creation of say... a half pig-half man? Or any other combination of human and animal? I am sure it has already been experimented with but has been kept quiet and kept in check by the moral and ethical attitude of the majority of the general population. Now that the public is being educated and accustomed to the idea of cloning as well as being presented with the possible advantages of such a practice, it is likely that many will be more open minded about other such advanced technology. I don't know what I think about that. I have read about the idea of a half human-half animal which could serve to donate organs for patients waiting for transplants. For that matter, I wonder why they don't just clone the particular individual who needs a new organ or body part and use the new body parts which would have the same DNA? I imagine it would reduce complications that are commonly experienced now, like the body's rejecting the the new organ. But then again, this raises many more questions about ethics and morality. What does God think of cloning, I wonder? Is it ethical? Is it moral? Is it ever mentioned in the Bible? Should it be considered a good thing, if it was to save someone's life? If someone needed a transplant operation, could doctors just clone a particular body part? Or do they have to clone the whole person and then remove the specific part? If doctors were to create a whole person (or even a hybrid creature) for a transplant operation, what should become of the rest of the clone? Should it be treated as a human with the same human rights the rest of us are born with? Or is it considered property of it's creator? I don't know much about the whole process, but I find the subject very interesting and I am curious to find out more about it. If you have views or comments on the issue, won't you please write me?
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