IS CLONING PETS A SLIPPERY SLOPE TO HUMAN CLONING?
Yes. I think it is a very slippery slope.
Remember Hitler? He may not have used the scientific advances that we have at our disposal today but the idea of a selected race of people was there. Do we really want to go down that road again?
We start off with someone’s perception of the perfect cat or dog and it doesn’t take much imagination to extend that perception. Where will the variation of personalities be coloring and size also? And that is just in the animals. What is it that makes us love our cat or dog? Is it because we see something unique in that particular animal? Clone said pet and then what happens to that uniqueness? It’s gone. The dictionary definition of unique is: being the only one of its kind; solitary; being without equal; sole.
I can understand to a certain extent the reasons touted for cloning sheep and cattle, but I think that is a very big ‘bucket-of-worms’. Surely, continued good breeding practices would get better results. Natural selection and evolution is how the world has developed throughout the ages so what would we really gain by cloning?
How can anyone know for certain that by cloning a specific animal, we are not nurturing an undetected flaw that could cause harm in the future?
There is also the fact that, human nature being what it is; there will be some individuals that will use the technology for criminal or harmful purposes. Can you imagine the effects of cloning dogs that has been breed for fighting? The results of that ‘so-called’ sport is horrendous enough now without the availability of cloning technology.
We also have the livelihoods of the breeders involved in the various animal shows. If cloned champions are the norm, where will the competition be that helps towards improving the breeds?
How boring would the gallops or trots be if the best racers were cloned? The results wouldn’t vary very much.
Cloning flora is entirely another matter. Plants do not have animalistic instincts and characteristics although they are living entities. They provide food, shelter, and clothing to keep us alive. We can survive without the meat of animals but not without plants. We have been cloning plant-life for years and have had no problems. I’m talking about cloning here and not about genetic manipulation. That is a different ‘bucket-of-worms’.
When it comes to cloning people, the slope gets very slippery indeed.
It’s bad enough that parents can choose the sex of their child or the color of the child’s eyes and other characteristics now. That is scary enough on its own without the added unknown results of cloning.
Let’s hope that common sense will prevail and natural selection and evolution will remain the norm.
