I actually have something to say at long last on the cloning thing. I won’t even dignify the Raelian claims by commenting on them. Instead I was reading an article on the effects reproductive cloning might have on the institution of marriage. Marriage, of course, is already facing major difficulties and may be in its death-throes. Be that as it may I think the idea of cloning yourself in order to have a kid is pretty bent. Personally I wouldn’t want to have myself as a kid. I know not only how many headaches I gave my parents but also how really rough I perceive my childhood was. I also know that I’m not entirely tickled with the person I am right now and I also know that there are a fair number of people who’d – from time to time – like to kick my head in. Why on earth would I want to recreate myself so that little me could go through some approximation of the trials I went through? Not to mention how bizarre it would be to have yourself wiping your arse in your incontinent years.
OK, then. Who to clone if you really want a kid and have given up all hope on the natural front? An old girlfriend? Tell me that wouldn’t have all sorts of interesting Woody Allen-ish repercussions to an aging person seeing the object of their desire recreated in their prime. How about your Mom or Dad? That at least has some sort of peculiar attractiveness to it in its own very sick way. Just think, you could have Mom in her prime wiping down yer backside in your autumn years just as she spent her prime doing in your infant years. Woo, that makes the mind boggle don’t it?
OK, enough fixation on scatalogical imagery. It is a legitimate question though. Are people really so spectacularly narcisstic that they’d want to recreate themselves? I doubt it. At least outside of New York City. So what do we do? Permit the few oddballs to recreate someone from a few strands of hair or just put the kibosh on the whole thing from the start? I opt for the latter and fall back on my old standby, just because we have the capability to do something does not neccessarily imply we should do something. I know there’s a proper philosophical/logical term for that maxim but it escapes me just now.