JS: I've just started Jonny the Smokes BBQ & Guitar Church of the Latter Days and I'd like to order 16 million clones to start my membership.
COS: No problem, I can help with that! What models would like to select from?
JS: I like to keep a firm grip on my membership so I'd like 4 million of the ET Benson model, 6 million BK Packer's, 4 million of the Brigham Young, and 2 Million of the SW Kimball.
COS: Excellent selection sir and may I add, good choice on the SW Kimball to soften up the hardliners a bit. Since you're ordering more than 10 million, I have a special offer today only that I want to tell you about.
COS: If you purchase the "iron rod" application today, you can get 8 million clones, plus the "iron rod" application which is linked to each clone. The application is basically a back up of each clone that can be activated with a plate of cookies and deactivated with a cup of coffee. That way you only have to pay for 8 million clones, but you can claim 16 million in your membership counts, and you save money so you'll have more to spend. Did you know you can get anything in this world for money?
JS: That sounds great! I'll take special offer. How soon will they arrive?
COS: Well, these ship by handcart so it will probably be a few months, provided they don't ship too late in the season.
JS: Hmmm, that's a long time, but I have scriptures to write, treasure to dig, and rituals to steal, so that should be fine.
Yes. Far ahead of its time, too. And thought-provoking.
Trouble is, Shelley's conclusion was that unless it was a god-made human, it won't have a conscience or a "spirit" of good like a god-made human. What happens with human clones is yet to be determined, but the most likely outcome is that their conscience/brains (I'm intentionally leaving out "spirit") will be just like ours.
Exactly. As long as humans have been reproducing they've been producing clones in the form of identical twins. And anyone who knows identical twins as adults knows that they are two very different individuals.
My big concern about human cloning is the expectations that will be forced on the clone. If a great athlete is cloned, the clone will also be expected to be a great athlete. They'll feel that they've lost the freedom to determine their own future.
And genetics is only part of the story. Presumably the cloned fetus will develop in a different uterus, which will affect change. And no matter how hard someone tries there's no way to raise the child in an identical environment. I'd feel badly for a kid with the body of a super athlete who only wants to sit in his bedroom and write emo poetry.
The thing that worries me a lot more than human cloning is the genetic engineering of designer babies. As technology becomes more sophisticated we'll be able to take a human embryo and splice in any other genes we want - genes that might be linked to intelligence, disease resistance, physical attractiveness, physical strength, etc. And at the same time we can edit out genes associated with mental illness, susceptibility to cancer, and anything else deemed undesirable.
And of course all of this genetic manipulation will be expensive, which means it will only be available to the already privileged. Which will make the divide between the haves and have nots even greater.
I think this will be a greater problem for religion. We say that people have been blessed with good looks or a brilliant mind. Is it still a blessing when all of that can be purchased. And from a Mormon perspective, if an embryo was created with top of the line, state of the art genetic enhancements, was that person extra special valiant in the pre-existence?
I could see this weakening religion a great deal. Those of us who've been on missions know that those "most receptive to the gospel" are more likely the poor, needy, lonely, in ill health, looking for something better out of life. I think if a middle class family had the option of giving 10% of their income to a church versus using that same money to slip a few extra genes into their future children's embryos they'd go with their children.