Human Cloning

[Ruffest]

Cloning is a big possibility for the future. Basically Doc's are saying that soon (10 years) you will be able to choose the skin colour, eye colour, hair colour, nose size/shape, mouth and how other parts of your baby looks.

Also infertile couples would be able to generate their own children. Rather than using sperm and eggs from total strangers, the couple could produce their own child with qualities like themselves. Even though the child would be produced from cloning, it would become a unique individual and differ from the parent.


My question to you is this - Would you like to choose how your baby looked before it was born? "A designer baby" as such...


Personally, I think natural is the way to go. I mean, if you are able to have kids naturally then why choose cloning? I'm all for cloning if it will be used to recreate essential organs for patients with internal diseases, but cloning to prolong someones life to 200 years without the ageing signs is downright ridiculous! Who would want to live for 200 years anyway?

 

[Famine]

Why not? I spend more on a car in one go than I would on a kid in 6 months, and I can choose the colour, trim and engine of that.

 

[G.T]

Also the world would fill up more if people lived for longer, which will cause crowding.

I heard on the news a week ago a scientist said it's possible to live forever. Why?

Does this thread best belong in the Opinions Forum?

 

[Event]

Also the world would fill up more if people lived for longer, which will cause crowding.

I heard on the news a week ago a scientist said it's possible to live forever. Why?

Does this thread best belong in the Opinions Forum?

If you could somehow cure heart disease, Ahlzheimers, cancer, and all other terminal illnesses, I guess you could probably live forever. You also can't go outside because of what accidents could happen.

 

[Famine]

90% of all accidents occur within 100 yards of the home, so you're best off moving out every day, 101 yards down the road.


Everyone on Earth could fit onto the Isle of Wight. Filling the world up is NOT an issue.

 

[Delirious]

yeah, just take a drive through indiana or central section of illinois and you can see vast amounts of...nothing, suitable for human living

plus i dont think it's possible to clone another person's soul, but clone a persons dead body maybe...(but the discussion of souls is another topic, my 2 cents)

 

[PS]

yeah, just take a drive through indiana or central section of illinois and you can see vast amounts of...nothing, suitable for human living

plus i dont think it's possible to clone another person's soul, but clone a persons dead body maybe...(but the discussion of souls is another topic, my 2 cents)

Yes, why don't we all destroy and build on top of crops/farmland so we don't have anywhere to grow vegetables. Let's chop down all the forests while we're at it too, and live where they used to be.

I think with a lot of physical maintenance, you could medically and physically live forever. But, organs will only last a certain amount of time, and the brain is definately the most difficult to master or operate on with success. If your brain shuts down, then what good is the $70,000 heart or $30,000 liver you just put in? Not much, that's for sure.

And Famine, of all people, wouldn't you know that skin and organic tissue inevitably deteroirates over time?

I think I also heard somewhere that aging/wrinkles are caused by O2/Oxygen, something about the way the cells are affected and how the mitosis slows down to the point of it ceasing to function. It has something to do with collegen and elasten too, but I'm not sure what those 2 are.

All in all, I'd say living for about 150 years would be fine for me, but cloning my body parts to prolong that is a little much. I mean, if you're that desperate to hold on to another breath, you probably should have died long ago.

 

[Mark T]

90% of all accidents occur within 100 yards of the home, so you're best off moving out every day, 101 yards down the road.


Everyone on Earth could fit onto the Isle of Wight. Filling the world up is NOT an issue.

Wow. That is unbelievable.

 

[Famine]

And Famine, of all people, wouldn't you know that skin and organic tissue inevitably deteroirates over time?

Dividing cells are limited only by their telomeres. Preserve the telomeres by telomerase action and cells are immortal. Just ask Henrietta Lacks - the most famous name in the field.


pimpin_t - The Isle of Wight has an area of 147 square miles (which is actually less than the city of Sheffield... But I digress). 147 square miles is (147*5280*5280) square feet, or 4,908,124,800 square feet. Bunched up nice and tight, the average person can fit in a 0.6 square foot gap, meaning that 6,830,208,000 people can fit onto the Isle of Wight. Currently there are about 6.25 billion people on the Earth, meaning we've got room for another 0.58 billion before we have to abandon that statistic...

 

[Touring Mars]

My question to you is this - Would you like to choose how your baby looked before it was born? "A designer baby" as such...

Difficult question, but my answer has to be no...

I'm not against human cloning or stem cell research, but I am against certain aspects of how the technology may be used or exploited... my position is analogous to being in favour of basic scientific research that resulted in the discovery of how to split the atom, and the building (and use) of nuclear weapons... the progress of science cannot and should not be stopped, especially for some pseudo-religious reason like ('we're playing God') or anything... but the question is, once that knowledge is attained, the application of the science should be ethical and morally acceptable...

Before anything was known about how to manipulate the genetic make-up of the unborn infant, the Nazis attempted to do pretty much the same thing by 'breeding out' unwanted characteristics - so-called Eugenics... but they were on very questionable moral and ethical ground... by choosing the way your baby looks, you introduce the spectre of creating the perception of a 'visually inferior' race - the Nazis believed, if you don't look perfect, then you are imperfect. If designer babies were allowed to be created, we could find ourselves going down the same route... anyone not born with perfect features would instantly become 'inferior'...

I think that this sort of genetic manipulation should only be allowed to be used to knock out certain genetic diseases, but that should be it...

 

[James2097]

Difficult question, but my answer has to be no...

I'm not against human cloning or stem cell research, but I am against certain aspects of how the technology may be used or exploited... my position is analogous to being in favour of basic scientific research that resulted in the discovery of how to split the atom, and the building (and use) of nuclear weapons... the progress of science cannot and should not be stopped, especially for some pseudo-religious reason like ('we're playing God') or anything... but the question is, once that knowledge is attained, the application of the science should be ethical and morally acceptable...

Before anything was known about how to manipulate the genetic make-up of the unborn infant, the Nazis attempted to do pretty much the same thing by 'breeding out' unwanted characteristics - so-called Eugenics... but they were on very questionable moral and ethical ground... by choosing the way your baby looks, you introduce the spectre of creating the perception of a 'visually inferior' race - the Nazis believed, if you don't look perfect, then you are imperfect. If designer babies were allowed to be created, we could find ourselves going down the same route... anyone not born with perfect features would instantly become 'inferior'...

I think that this sort of genetic manipulation should only be allowed to be used to knock out certain genetic diseases, but that should be it...

Agree 100%. Except a clause that states any scientist should be allowed to make as many clones of Jessica Alba as they feel like. 👍

 

[Pupik]

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

There's nothing wrong with human cloning.

Oops, maybe there is.

 

[smellysocks12]

I'm for the cloning of Jessica Alba type of people, genetically modified without any brain activity other than a sex drive.





...




No not really, I'm definitely against it.

 

[standard235]

^^

Anyways I think to let nature to take its course is best unless the parents have AIDS or something. That's where it would be best effective.

 

[Danoff]

Cloning and genetic engineering raise some important moral questions. What you see as an advantage may not seem like an advantage to the child.

For example, I might personally want three arms. But my kid may not. If I make that decision for him - he'd have to cope with having three arms (perhaps his definition of deformed) for the rest of his life. Where do you draw the line? Perhaps you child doesn't want to be brilliant, or increadibly attractive, or have a third eye, or 12 fingers.

It's not an easy question to answer but my view is that diseases and birth defects can legitimately be eliminated through genetic engineering. Small things like hair color or eye color can probably also be safely engineered. But it's a slippery slope.

 

[SS69]

I heard on the news a week ago a scientist said it's possible to live forever. Why?

i dont know about forever. eventually somethings gotta wear out that they couldnt replace. like the brain. yea they could probably clone a persons brain but it still wouldnt be the same. ive never heard of a case of someone dieing because their brain got too old but im sure its possible. i think this whole cloning thing is pushing it way too far. we dont know what consequences could come of it or what problems will occur with the clones. think about the movie "the 6th day." after 6 years or so a person who had been cloned developed a deadly disease. sure its just a movie but thats a believable possibility. everyone was worried about machines and AI becomeing self aware. what about clones. they found out they're clones, and not "real humans." who knows how they'll react. they may start thinking that they're not real humans, so real human laws dont apply to them. this all sounds real interesting in a way, but i still know its wrong and shouldnt be done.