Yes, I heard about cloning a sheep and now also a cow.
I have no doubt that the experiment may be successfully
extended to human beings in the near future.
By the way, you may have heard that it is now also possible
to freeze baboons and reanimate them. In like manner, we may
extrapolate that it will soon be possible to do this for humans
too. Of course, then all kinds of legal and ethical questions
will be raised. But in general, it should be extremely helpful
for saving lives and healing people who are at the edge of death.
Ethical questions have been raised at the beginning of every
new technology, for example, flying, traveling faster than the
speed of sound, doing heart transplants, lie detector tests, etc.
But, in general, these problems are solved and the technology
fits into the life of our modern society.
Now, for cloning:
I do believe that a cloned human being (as a body) will also
receive a spirit, given by God, enabling it to be fully alive in
every sense as an independent human being.
Identical twins are naturally cloned human beings, yet they
have unique spirits, as we already know. A number have even
joined our Movement. And in some cases, one joins but the other
partner does not. They have free will, an independent spirit,
independent thinking, independent responsibility....
The problem is if we view a cloned person as not being fully
a human being. That's where abuses are most likely to come from.
Each human being, however produced, whether a test tube baby,
or through artificial insemination, or thawed out from deep
freeze, has all the human rights and responsibilities. A person
must not exploit a cloned "self" for the use of its organs. That
would certainly be a crime.
On the other hand, this cloning may be practiced in a
different sense, that of tissue culture, to produce a healthy
functioning liver, for example, which could be transplanted into
the original self, the person who needs it to survive. But this
must not mean killing another human soul.
There arise sticky questions, such as for example the "alter
ego" was raised in a womb in order to produce the needed organs,
but then "harvested" without ever having been born. That, then,
amounts to abortion, which most Christians regard as a crime and
sin.
I think there would be no question if, say, a kidney, was
raised from a tissue culture, grown in a mechanical and chemical
medium, but not as part of a whole human body. Then it is obvious
that there would be no spirit, no human being, involved.
Already it is accepted medical practice to accept organs
donated from a living or deceased next of kin. For example, skin
grafts, kidney transplants, bone marrow transplants, etc. That is
with the voluntary and legal cooperation of the donor party, and
although it puts their life in somewhat greater risk, they are
willing to do so out of love.
That kind of thing.
So, in summary, a cloned human being is fully human, and
has mind and heart and spirit just like all of us. It is born in
exactly the same way as all of us, except its original embryo was
created in a slightly different way. So, you see how flexible is
life, and how much the human spirit longs to live, and how much
life God has to give?
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