GP: Cloning & the future of technology by Trish Moran

This week’s guest poster is author Trish Moran who discussing the concept of cloning. Enjoy. 

Present Day Cloning

Since Dolly the sheep, was cloned in 1996, cloning has been in the news quite frequently. There are stories of monkeys, cows and racehorses which have also been successfully cloned.  In 2005, laws were passed to control human cloning but they were ambiguously worded and received ambivalent support from different countries around the world.

An article in a Sunday newspaper said that a Chinese research group had claimed that they had reached the point where they were able to clone a human being but that they had not done so due to ethical considerations.

Many people argue that in certain situations cloning is acceptable and a way forward to prevent or treat genetically inherited conditions.  But for many it still seems the thin edge of the wedge. Are we heading for designer babies?  Or, behind the scenes, are scientists already well on the way to achieving this?

The big fear is, how far have scientists developed methods to clone humans and has it already been done somewhere?

Looking to the future

If we take a look into the future where modern technology plays an increasingly important role in medical development, it seems inevitable that human cloning will play a major role.  And that in the wrong hands it can be misused perhaps for mercenary purposes.

If we are looking at cloned body parts to replace or repair the original donors’ organs, could we end up with copies of the originals as a bank of spare parts.  If a person has the money to do this and was given the opportunity to do so, why not.

We are all behind medical advances solving the problems of inherited conditions and replacement prosthetic limbs and organ support to give every individual the opportunity to live life to the full.  Stephen Hawking, who had so much to give to the scientific community and in fact to the world in general, is a shining example of modern technology put to use to provide the best possibility for someone to live a full life against overwhelmingly odds.

Ethical Issues

If we can clone a human, why stop there?  Why not make that person a superior version of the original?  Why accept the inferior version of human life?  We could jump even further ahead and consider Artificial Intelligence.  In the future, will AI guidance dictate what is an ‘acceptable human’?

Another factor to consider when envisaging a future with cloned humans as part of our society, will the clones be independent people with equal rights to their original donors and other humans? Would they be considered a new strand of the human race?

How might cloned humans view religion? Would they consider God to be their creator? Or would they see human or even, eventually, AI scientists as the great creators? There is the fear that some people might even take advantage of this for their own purposes.

There are more questions than answers as we look towards the future and modern technology in medical advancement. And some of these answers can be very perturbing.

Trish Moran

Author of the Clones trilogy, a fantasy adventure about a group of teenage clones set in the near future.  Trish Moran is a writer, a reader and a teacher. After a decade of living in Athens, Greece and a three year stint in Melbourne, Australia; she is now living in her hometown Burton-on-Trent once again.

There are stories all around us waiting to be written! 

Book: Mirror Image

Clones – Humans or Products?

Journey into the future where technological developments mean that death or disability can sometimes be cheated, at a price. Cloning holds the key.

Would Clones be granted human status? Would they have equal rights to other humans? Or would they merely be classified as products of advanced technology?

Fifteen year old orphan, Stella, on the run from State care, finds herself caught up in their desperate fight for equality when she joins a group of clones of around her own age who have escaped from a sinister medical centre where financial gain is held much higher than human values.

Can the young teenagers take on the rich and powerful and win their fight for recognition?

Book one, Mirror Image, available now, Book two, Altered Image, available later this year.