Cloning - cannibalism in disguise?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It was thanks to the labors of Gurdon that the famous Dolly the sheep was once successfully cloned. However, American biologists Rudolph Jenish and Ryuzo Yanagimachi concluded that every single clone created to date has genetic defects.

In particular, they have disrupted the on-off mechanism of individual genes. That is why cloned animals tend to have reduced immunity. Researchers at the Tokyo National Institute of Infectious Diseases conducted a study in mice. In doing so, they selected experimental individuals born by cloning, and 12 naturally born mice. 10 clones did not survive for 800 days. But out of ordinary mice during this time, only one died.

The cause of death was mainly lung and liver diseases. The cloned animals' immune systems were unable to produce enough antibodies to fight infections.

When it comes to cloning people, the consequences can be even more dire. Thus, Vyacheslav Tarantul, Deputy Director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, stated that all cloned individuals obtained so far in 99% of cases suffer from various developmental anomalies. Before the notorious Dolly the sheep was born, 300 embryos were transplanted, but all of them either died or were born defective.

Dolly, on the other hand, over time showed numerous diseases, as well as signs of early aging. According to V. Tarantula, a cloned person can physically turn into an old man by the age of 30. And according to Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Kiselev, "the efficiency of the cloning technique is 2-3%, that is, out of 200-300 women who carry a clone, only one has a chance to endure a more or less full-fledged embryo."

Who needs cloned children?

But suppose the problem of defects is solved. Then the question arises: how justified is the cloning procedure from the point of view of ethics? According to Gurdon, seeing the results with his own eyes, society will begin to treat cloning more tolerant.

Professor Gurdon even conducted a survey among his students. When asked whether it is worth cloning a child in the event of his death, 60% of the respondents answered yes, but only at the request of the parents of the deceased.

However, most researchers believe that in nature there cannot be two completely identical individuals, even with the same genes. Yes, cloning will make the copy look similar to the original, but the intrinsic features can be very different.

Moreover, the double will not have the memory of the original. In a word, it will be a completely different person, which can cause a stressful situation for those who have resorted to the procedure …

Meanwhile, some opponents of cloning fear, having received a “double” at their disposal, relatives will try to make it as close as possible to the original, for example, to impose on it the habits and tastes of the “predecessor”, thereby violating the right of the “copy” to self-determination. So, of course, you should think carefully before embarking on such an adventure.

Substitute cells

There is another side to cloning. Ever since it became possible, there has been a debate about the ethics of using clones for organ transplantation. Recently, scientists at Oregon Health and Science University produced the first full-fledged human embryo in a laboratory setting. Such embryos are supposed to be used to obtain stem cells.

This requires a skin sample from the original as well as a donor egg from a healthy woman. DNA is removed from the egg, after which one of the skin cells is injected into it. After that, an electric discharge is applied to the cell, which is why it begins to divide. Within six days, an embryo develops from it, from which stem cells can be taken for implantation.

According to scientists, with the help of such technologies it will be possible to treat such serious ailments as Alzheimer's disease, various brain pathologies and multiple sclerosis.

“Our discovery makes it possible to grow stem cells for patients with serious diseases and organ damage,” said one of the authors of the development, Dr. Shukharat Mitalipov. “Of course, there is still a lot to be done before a safe and reliable stem cell therapy emerges. But our work is a confident step towards regenerative medicine.

Until recently, a surrogate mother was required to carry a cloned embryo. It will now be possible to obtain clones in the laboratory without the participation of female volunteers.

Slaughter candidates

Meanwhile, many see the next discovery as a threat to humanity. Rather, the prospect for illegal and uncontrolled cloning of people.

Cloning is a rather slippery topic. If clones are born artificially, can they be considered human? Recently, a lot of science fiction works and films have appeared, the plots of which describe the discrimination of clones, as well as their use for organ transplants.

Organ transplantation has always been a problem as it is difficult to find a suitable donor.

With a whole army of clones raised specifically for donation purposes, the chances of people getting healthy organs instead of sick ones would increase dramatically. Especially if these organs were taken from their completely identical counterparts. Over time, even damaged limbs or, say, eyes could be transplanted … But what about the clones themselves?

So far, we are talking only about embryos, from which it is not planned to grow real people. But in principle they could become them. Another option: to grow clones with a defective brain - it seems like it is not a pity for such … But, again, how ethical is it? The hero of Nancy Farmer's book "House of the Scorpion", a clone of a large drug lord, unlike his "brothers" in misfortune, is kept sane. But he manages to save his life only by a miracle …

The fantastic picture "The Island" depicts the society of the future, where there are entire settlements of clone-people, which are grown only in order to subsequently receive organs from them …

And in the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro "Don't Let Me Go" and the film of the same name, clones are taught in special schools, accustoming them from childhood to the idea that sooner or later they will become donors and donate their organs to save the lives of other people, so that almost none of them will not live to be thirty.

It would seem that in reality such a scenario is simply impossible: no country in the world will legalize the killing of living people for medical purposes! But who knows … After all, the prospects that cloning opens up are quite tempting. And why not sacrifice an underdeveloped "copy" to save the life of, say, a famous scientist, artist or politician? The more global the scale, the less valuable the life of a clone will seem …

But even if the use of clones as organ donors is banned, where is the guarantee that this will not be done illegally? After all, people who have money will be able to afford and maintain well-equipped secret laboratories, and pay the best doctors, and shut up whoever needs it. It is possible that donor cloning will generally turn into an underground business and will be available to everyone who has connections and who can afford it.

Science is developing rapidly, and the world, whether we like it or not, will never be the same as before. Therefore, research related to cloning will continue. But where they will lead humanity - this is a mystery covered in darkness …

Ida SHAKHOVSKAYA

"Secrets of the XX century" July 2013

If we take into account the existence of the mechanism of reincarnation, then the essence of cloning can be looked at differently. Cloning has dire consequences for the reincarnated. Artificially created biomass is also biomass and the essence is reincarnated into it. Biomass without essence cannot exist.

Firstly:clones are grown mostly of low quality and the entity is doomed to suffer from the diseases of the mortal body.

Secondly:they want to receive clones for the use of their stem cells (still at the stage of the embryo) for treatment. Since it is very expensive, it is natural that only the "upper class" of society will be treated. Even if ordinary people were treated without (c) paid too, it is still impossible to implement this idea! When such terrible methods are used in medicine, and even bastards are treated, it is doubly awful. When an entity enters the body, it loses a great energy potential for this procedure. It's like abortion. The essence enters the body and then, in the embryo phase, its body is killed, and the potential has already been spent and only a highly developed essence can return back. And if the essence is not highly developed, then it is doomed to get to the LOWER ASTRAL, that is, “IN HELL”.

Thirdly:they want to produce clones in order to grow them, and then kill and pull out the necessary organs for transplantation. THE MOST REAL CATTLE! That is, a person will turn into a 100% SLAVE! And the most interesting thing is that the inhabitants of this planet will be reincarnated.

And the most interesting thing is that the inhabitants of this planet will be reincarnated. This can become the future of OUR ESSENCES !!! So the fight against cloning is a fight for the future of ourselves in the first place!

Rich people (most likely Jews) will be treated at our expense in such a barbaric way!

The relationship between the cloned biomass and the entity, of course, is not yet fully understood and requires its own consideration.

Perhaps, the genetics of the entity, embodied in the cloned biomass, is not completely identical to the genetics of its biological body-clone, and perhaps that is why all clones at the moment have genetic defects.

NV Levashov in his book “The Mirror of My Soul” described the technology of cloning with the transfer of the memory of the cloned person to a clone. It is not entirely clear from the context whether the essence is introduced into the biomass in this case. But in the cases described in the article, the clone bears a living creature (a sheep or, in the case of human cloning, a woman), and if the entity really enters into such biomass, then the development of events described in the commentary is most plausible.

We invite readers to think about these non-trivial questions for themselves …