Currently, more than seven billion people live on planet Earth. On the one side there is talk that it is time to colonize Mars or another planet more or less suitable for human life. These intentions are related to the fact that, as the famous writer said, Kurt Vonnegut: « Humanity - you are so overpopulated! » .
On the other hand medicine and science are actively working to allow cloning of people on Earth. In order to help those individuals who suffer from infertility, in order to use this procedure to “resurrect” famous personalities who bring real benefit to society and in connection with other less justified needs.
As you can see, a mixed picture emerges. According to some data, humanity is overpopulated, according to others it is underpopulated and needs clones. Do we need Mars or is there still a need for twins of different ages all over the world? Why do people need clones if natural resources will soon not be enough for a normally born person? This will be discussed in this article.
In fact, the topic of colonization of Mars is clearly worthy of a separate publication, so within the framework of this material I will only consider the issue of human cloning. Do we need it and is it as scary as various science fiction films and writers paint it in their futuristic novels? Let's look at the most obvious pros and cons Further.
By itself cloning implies exact reproduction of an object. Respectively, human cloning – this is the creation of an embryo from which a person is subsequently grown who has the genotype of the individual whose clone it is.
The concept of cloning came from microbiology, and then began to be actively used in genetics. The topic of creating identical people quite soon attracted not only the minds of many medical figures and scientific researchers, but also the creative elite - writers, film directors and screenwriters. Today, both in cinema and in literature, there are a lot of books and films telling about what awaits humanity if cloning is allowed to become the norm.
And here it would be reasonable to figure out Why is cloning necessary at all? Why did people come to such an idea as reproducing their own kind not by the usual method of merging a man and a woman, and conceiving a child by getting a sperm into an egg, but in an artificial way, allowing one to literally create armies of identical-looking homo sapiens?
On this score Scientists give the following arguments:
Firstly, cloning not just people, but organs and tissues makes a revolutionary breakthrough in transplantology and traumatology. For example, if your liver is failing, then thanks to the presence of a healthy clone of it, they can implant a working copy into you. Or if, after a severe burn, you lose a piece of your skin, you can easily replace it with analog and continue to live calmly and happily. In this plan Cloning, roughly speaking, body parts is very necessary and appropriate. These procedures will allow a person to live for a long time, so to speak, with the same consciousness and spirit, but with organs that are simply replaceable like puzzles, ensuring our life activity.
Thanks to cloned organs, you won't have to worry about whether your spleen or kidney will take root in your body or cause rejection., there will be no need to think that such a transplant will lead to the development of an incurable disease. Just imagine how many lives can be saved and extended on our planet if you meekly entrust biologists and other scientists with the possibility of cloning individual organs and tissues? In my opinion, this is not a bad prospect.
But let's go further and return to cloning a whole person. The second important argument for the position of science in the validity of the reproduction of clones is assistance to childless families . According to statistics, In Russia, every seventh married couple suffers from infertility, and this in turn provokes both the breakdown of marriages and simply the presence of scandals and quarrels against the background of natural misunderstanding.
On the one hand, we have overcrowded orphanages, where the “flowers of life” who are of no use to biological parents spend their most intimate years, and isn’t this a reason for childless family men to make at least some contribution to the fate of humanity? On the other hand, we are all human, and often the problem of “mothers” and “fathers” who are unable to conceive a child is that they want their own children, with similar facial features, habits, predictable genetics, and so on.
Here, as you understand, the ability to clone a person comes into force! Why shouldn't an infertile mother give birth to her own clone? This development of events may seem absurd to many, but science has its own view of the evolution of mankind. Even if it does not always coincide with mass consciousness.
Third, human cloning is intended to save people from a number of genetic diseases . So, if, for example, the father of the unborn child has some genetically sore spot, then her own somatic cell will be placed in the egg of the future mother - absolutely healthy, as a result, a child will be born who is the prototype of his mother, without the diseases of the nominal father. Exactly the same operation with the father’s somatic cell will be reproduced if the woman carrying the child has a genetic disease. Instead of her copy, the world will see a copy of her husband.
Perhaps the specific rationale of scientists is worthy of recognition from humanity, but just think, What's it like to grow your own copies? And what will it be like for the children themselves, who know in advance what they will be like at 20, 40 and 60 years old?? Will the world become too predictable?
The next argument of scientists proving the need for cloning is the ability to reproduce human genes in animals . The creation of so-called therapeutic proteins will also make it possible to heal people. We are talking here about those individuals who have diseases due to mutated genes, for example, hemophiliacs, who need a blood-stopping protein. So, in 1997, American scientists cloned six sheep, three of which were implanted with a specific human gene, and it actively took root in one of the sheep. As a result, when the animal grew up and began to produce milk, human protein was discovered in the product. Thus, sheep's milk was supposed to be beneficial for those suffering from hemophilia.
As you can see, the effects of cloning a whole person or parts for the people themselves are quite optimistic– they will increase the life expectancy of individuals, improve the gene pool and resolve the issue of the birth of children from infertile parents. But Why then is the public majority, the church and the top officials of many states, along with legislation, so rebelling against the procedure of reproducing human copies?
And here the first reason is, of course, the fears of all the above-mentioned subjects that a high percentage of unsuccessful “copies” will appear as a result of cloning, namely, defective people. This aspect is considered to be social and ethical. It also includes such insoluble issues, according to the authorities and opponents of cloning, as paternity or maternity, social confusion with inheritance rights, the possibility of marriage and other solutions to problems that arise, sometimes unforeseen by ordinary humanity, in connection with the appearance of copied people.
The second aspect against cloning is the inability of a copied person to fully replicate the consciousness of the original. That is, on the one hand, we can assure society with certainty that the clones will not be completely identical - repetition is possible only in genetic terms and appearance. Scientists have proven that it is absolutely impossible to reproduce people with the same personalities, abilities and habits.
This means that the very concept of cloning is devalued. Accordingly, the question arises: why are clones needed in this case, if it is not possible to gift the modern world with Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci? Why do we need externally identical people if internally they all have different characters? Shouldn't we just leave this place to nature with its twins and twins?
But then it gets worse. World religions almost unanimously trumpet that cloning goes beyond what is permitted by God., since it is aimed at creating artificial life, but not God’s. Maneuvers with the alteration of nature and God-given schemes, according to religious people, go against the entire existing nature.
This aspect is ethical and religious, and here is what he said about the reasons for not accepting cloning University of Chicago professor Leon Kass:
« Cloning constitutes unethical experimentation on unborn babies and exposes them to the enormous risk of being born with physical defects and problems.. It threatens individuality... It mixes personalities... It represents a giant step forward towards making procreation a commercial production… And it is a radical form of parental despotism and child abuse.”
Even the head of such a loyal doctrine as Buddhism Dalai Lama 14th expressed his position regarding cloning:
“As for cloning, as a scientific experiment, it makes sense if it benefits a specific person, but If you apply it all the time, there is nothing good in it. »
By the way, about the fact that cloning can result in the reproduction of endless copies of people for commercial purposes.
Imagine that, say, a man with sufficient means decides to marry Pamela Andersen, the idol of his teenage years. In today's ordinary reality, this is hardly possible. But if human cloning is allowed, then everything will change dramatically! Theoretically, in order to acquire your own “Andersen”, you will only need to place Pamela’s somatic cell from some surrogate mother into an egg and wait 9 months until a blond clone girl is born. Then, wait another 18 years - until she grows up and, if the man “customer” is still alive, he can very well become her husband, lover or just a friend, if before that he does not play the role of her father.
And this is just the mildest example of how cloned people can become commodities.
But if the full-fledged copying of a person also for sale today looks like an abstraction, then operations with dead embryos, most often aborted, have long become a business both for scientific researchers hatching plans to legalize cloning, and for the beauty industry pumping priceless stem cells from dead bodies that have literally become a hit for rejuvenation!
However, let's not deviate from the topic and return to the reasons for the negative attitude towards human cloning. And here there is the next aspect that warns of biological hazards. That is, According to some scientists, in the long term, cloning can lead to irreparable genetic changes in humans. And this, you understand, can play both in our favor and against us. The latter means that it is possible that humanity will disappear on Earth due to unpredictable adjustments to the gene pool cloned individual.
Now let's turn to the law, How do certain authorities in different countries of the world view the scientific approach to the invention of man?
According to Wikipedia, in countries such as Germany, France and Japan, human cloning is currently officially prohibited. Moreover, There are states that provide criminal liability for human cloning– these are Brazil, Great Britain, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Moldova, Romania, El Salvador, Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia, as well as the countries already indicated above. It is worth noting that in the United States there was also a complete ban on cloning until 2009, but subsequently the authorities lifted the restriction on therapeutic cloning.
It should also be said that such a world-famous organization as Back in 2005, the UN called on member countries to adopt prohibitive acts regarding all existing and not yet created forms of cloning. The justification was the following formulation: "contradiction to human dignity" And "protection of human life". Simply put, the UN recommended restrictions on human cloning to the extent that it is incompatible with concepts of human dignity and if it is contrary to the preservation of human life.
The story of creating copies of people in Russia was also cut off at the root , thanks to the law “On a temporary ban on human cloning” adopted in 2002. Since the decree was in effect only for five years, its term expired already in 2007, and only 3 years later, that is, in 2010, the law was extended. It is worth noting that it only deals with the prohibition of reproductive cloning, that is, the reproduction of analogue individuals repeating each other. Thus, there is no ban on therapeutic cloning in our country – reproduction of other organisms, including any cells, including human ones, for research purposes is permitted.
As for the reason for banning reproductive cloning, the Federal Law of the Russian Federation has the following explanation: “ Human cloning faces many legal, ethical and religious issues that have no obvious resolution to date. ».
Thus, we can say that along with public and religious misunderstanding of the need for human cloning, the government of many countries in the world, in legislative form, is also closing down the shop for the assembly line production of identical-looking people.
But, of course, if there is a scientific basis for the progressive cloning of individuals, then there are public figures advocating the creation of copied people.
For example, well-known to Russians Vladimir Zhirinovsky believes that Clones are necessary for our country to boost the economy, as well as to solve demographic problems , and in one of his statements promised that he would seek to lift the ban on human cloning in Russia.
In addition, in a country as remote from the rest of the world as Australia, where perhaps there is also a shortage of humanity, as in the depths of the Siberian taiga, since December 2006 the authorities have officially allowed the cloning of a human embryo, although again not for reproductive purposes. In 2008, the Australian government clarified that scientists can clone embryos in order to obtain embryonic stem cells from them.
In general, it is definitely impossible to talk about whether cloning a person is good or bad. On the one hand, perhaps reproducing copies of people will allow humanity to overcome some insoluble difficulties, including infertility, which was already mentioned earlier - as the most significant, in my opinion. On the other hand, on Today, even without cloning, artificial insemination is practiced, which allows women to give birth to children that are individual in every sense.. From the point of view of cloning individual organs, this procedure is more justified, again in my subjective opinion. Since, with positive development, it will actually increase life expectancy, survival, and wear resistance of the human body.
Based on this, a reasonable question remains: why then do we need to reproduce our own copies in the form of cloned people? Is it just out of vanity and curiosity to give birth to your clone in order to watch how a child, identically similar to you, grows and develops, to cultivate in him what he himself missed during his life, in his youth, and so on?
It is possible that from an economic point of view, clones are still beneficial - because they can be easily replaceable, visually similar, the appearance of one person can be endlessly exploited for different purposes… But we shouldn’t forget that they will all have a completely individual consciousness. And if anyone still consoles themselves with the hope that it is possible to resurrect the brilliant John Lennon or, say, businessman Boris Berezovsky, then it is obvious that apart from the “cover” you will not receive anything, the “content” will be completely new, and it is unlikely Is it at least somehow identical to the original?
If, for the full picture, we take into account the fact that on our planet, especially in certain parts of it, there is already noticeable overpopulation, and this entails a shortage of drinking water, accelerates the depletion of natural resources and worsens the environment every day, which in the end, can also lead to problems with oxygen on Earth, then the reproduction of clones becomes completely useless to anyone. Why does the world need artificially born people, when traditionally born ones are already a dime a dozen? Is it possible to colonize Mars with them? But this is, perhaps, a completely different story.
What do you think about human cloning? And would you like to have your own clones?
In Secret technologies: people, clones and chimeras. Secrets of blood groups
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Clones
Different people live on Earth. Alive and not quite alive. Clones were not created today or yesterday. Clones have always been created.
The fact that this fact was hidden from humanity for many years does not mean that people were not cloned. The funny fact of cloning the sheep Dolly, which “legitimized” the very concept of CLONE for the masses, lifted the veil of secret darkness for people. (The supposedly first cloned animal shown, the sheep Dolly, is a mockery of humanity)
Before the political upheaval in Russia, called the Revolution of 1917, Russian scientists were already busy cloning. This process never stopped. Suffice it to say that to carry out this very Revolution, a large, simply enormous number of clones of different nationalities were grown in China. Mostly Chinese and Jewish. Before the Revolution there was no such word “Jew”; this name of the nation was born much later. Latvian riflemen were also cloned. The brutality of the revolutionary masses can be explained by the callousness of the clones.
The revolution in France under the leadership of Marat and Robespierre was also carried out by clones. Moreover, these clones called Robespierre the Supreme Being. They had an innate, genetic obedience to commands.
Clones are also created for our rulers, but it’s not customary to talk about this. Writer Sergei Alekseev, in one of his most interesting books, described a secret laboratory for growing clones in Russia. Clones of all the rulers and presidents of the world were grown in the laboratory.
How are clones different from ordinary people?
- lack of spirituality, lack of compassion;
- lack of spirit, congenital cowardice, meanness;
- inability to absorb culture, lack of culture, despite education;
— unbridled sexuality, disorderly “doggy” sex;
- hypertrophied aggression, anger; - manic desire to kill.
They have the opportunity to have children, although for many this is difficult. Infertility is common among clones. They are more likely than others to have artificial insemination. It’s easier to say that basically this is their prerogative.
Clones were also grown for organ transplantation. This is not a modern achievement. It has been in human hands for a long time. Only high-ranking clans over people took advantage of this. Living in isolation. Nobody knows their life. This is not the life of presidents. This is the life of special people who rule the world.
Today secrets are coming out into our lives. What seemed incredible and fantastic yesterday is reality today. There were schools in which child clones were raised for organ removal. Donor clones. They grew up in isolation, in protected areas. In 2010, the film Never Let Me Go was released, about little clone children living in a boarding school in Hailsham. Upon reaching adulthood, children accidentally learn that they are being raised in order to donate their organs to rich people who can pay for it. And not only. Rich, noble people clone themselves during their lifetime so that, if necessary, they can replace diseased organs in their bodies with a cloned organ. Moreover, he, the person, is not at all interested in the mental suffering of the clone, since it is common to believe that clones have no soul. There are also options when a person suddenly dies - a bullet, an accident and other unforeseen circumstances that expose the body of an honorable person to danger. In this case, the human brain is transplanted from the original body into a clone body. The veil is lifted about this in the Russian film “Vepr”, which shows the 70s of the USSR. The film shows not only that such an operation was possible in the 70s of the 20th century, but also at the beginning of the century, in the 20s, such operations were also performed. True, this is too specific an activity associated not only with precision surgery, but also with the relocation of the soul from body to body.
Cloning laboratories exist inside highly secret military bases. As part of security, such bases are located inside the mountains, where you cannot go or exit. You can't escape. No curious journalist can enter.
Growing clones has several options. In several films, “The Sixth Day” and “The Matrix,” these same secret laboratories are shown, but people looking at the screen did not believe that they were looking at real human cloning laboratories.
1996-2001
The only international instrument that prohibits human cloning is the Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Human Dignity in relation to the Applications of Biology and Medicine, relating to the prohibition of the cloning of human beings, which was signed on January 12, 1998 by 24 countries out of 43 member countries of the Council. Europe (the Convention itself was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on April 4, 1997). On March 1, 2001, after ratification by 5 countries, this Protocol entered into force.
On February 19, 2005, the United Nations called on UN member states to pass legislation banning all forms of cloning as they are “contrary to human dignity” and are against the “protection of human life.” The UN Declaration on Human Cloning, adopted by General Assembly resolution 59/280 on 8 March 2005, calls on Member States to prohibit all forms of human cloning to the extent that they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.
During the discussion at the UN level, several options for a declaration were considered: Belgium, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Russia and a number of other countries proposed leaving the issue of therapeutic cloning to the discretion of the states themselves; Costa Rica, the USA, Spain and a number of others have advocated a complete ban on all forms of cloning.
Human cloning in Russia
Although Russia does not participate in the above-mentioned Convention and Protocol, it has not remained aloof from global trends, having responded to the challenge of the time by adopting the Federal Law “On a temporary ban on human cloning” dated May 20, 2002 No. 54-FZ.
As stated in its preamble, the law introduced a ban on human cloning, based on the principles of respect for humans, recognition of the value of the individual, the need to protect human rights and freedoms, and taking into account the insufficiently studied biological and social consequences of human cloning. Taking into account the prospects for using existing and developing technologies for cloning organisms, it is possible to extend the ban on human cloning or to lift it as scientific knowledge in this area accumulates and moral, social and ethical standards are determined when using human cloning technologies.
The Law defines human cloning as “the creation of a human being who is genetically identical to another living or deceased human being by transferring the nucleus of a human somatic cell into a nuclear-deprived female reproductive cell,” that is, we are talking only about reproductive cloning, not therapeutic cloning.
According to Art. 4 of the Law, persons guilty of violating it are liable in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.
According to Art. 1 of the Law, a temporary ban was introduced for five years, which expired in June 2007, and for the next two years the issue of human cloning was not regulated in any way by Russian legislation. However, at the end of March 2010, the ban on human cloning in Russia was extended by adopting Art. 1 of the Law amendment extending the ban on human cloning for an indefinite period - until the entry into force of the law establishing the procedure for the use of biotechnologies in this area.
The reason for the ban is indicated in the explanatory note to the bill: “Human cloning faces many legal, ethical and religious problems that currently have no obvious solution.”
The new version of the article stipulates that the ban does not apply to the cloning of organisms for other purposes.
Some politicians have expressed regret over the extension of the ban on human cloning. In particular, State Duma deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky said:
We will definitely strive to lift the ban on human cloning - this is necessary for the economy, for demography, for the family, for traditions, this is only beneficial, there is no harm here.
On December 6, 2010, the Ministry of Health and Social Development announced its intention to pass the Federal Law “On Biomedical Cell Technologies” through the Duma. This law introduces an indefinite ban on human cloning (Chapter 1, Article 5, Clause 7). In response to this, the Russian transhumanist movement organized an action to collect signatures against the ban on human cloning in order to achieve the abolition of bans on human cloning and the use of embryonic stem cells, as well as a revision of the system of regulatory rules towards their simplification.
Push:
But in fact, humanity knows very little about human genetics to engage in ape-making (cloning something that we do not fully know, and we do not know what consequences this will lead to)...
Science, developing, makes global changes in people's lives. Some discoveries bring creative changes, others - negative ones. At the end of the 20th century, the topic of cloning—the creation of an embryo identical to the original individual—became extremely popular.
The year 1996 marked the first successful cloning of a mammal. Scientists have created Dolly the sheep. In 2007, Jan Wilmut, one of the leaders of the experiment, was awarded the title of knight by the Queen of Great Britain. In the late 90s, experts started talking about the real possibility of cloning people. Since Dolly, successful attempts have been made to clone 23 different species of animals. At the beginning of 2018, Chinese scientists announced the cloning of two female cynomolgus macaques, whose genome is 93% identical to that of humans. And again the scientific world remembered human cloning.
However, despite all the achievements of science, human cloning causes a lot of controversy. In January 1998, the states of 24 countries signed a protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, according to which it is prohibited to clone people. In 2005, the issue of cloning was raised by the UN, but a final ban on human cloning was never adopted. Currently, a number of states want to criminalize human cloning. The Russian Federation also has a ban on human cloning, introduced by law of May 20, 2002. According to this law, cloning in Russia is prohibited for an indefinite period.
- Difficulties in technological terms.
- At first glance, cloning may solve the problem of immortality. However, if you look deeper into this issue, the clone repeats only the genotype of its prototype, without being its exact copy. A clone, like any person, will have its own consciousness, as well as an individual set of phenotypic characteristics. Since a clone is only a repetition of the appearance of a person and his genome, scientists cannot resurrect such geniuses of human thought as Leo Tolstoy or Nikola Tesla. It is impossible to clone a person's abilities and consciousness.
- Religious aspect.
The world's major religions have strongly criticized the idea of human cloning, mainly because of the unnatural way life emerged. This is seen as an attempt to compete with God. And will a clone created in a laboratory have a soul? The religion also opposes therapeutic cloning, when an embryo that is not allowed to develop into a full-fledged individual is used to grow organs or remove stem cells. - Ethical issues.
From an ethical point of view, people cannot be cloned for several reasons. Firstly, due to the possibility of obtaining defective personalities. Especially in the first stages of cloning, many unsuccessful clones with various abnormalities and diseases may appear. Secondly, cloning poses a threat to human individuality. Thirdly, cloned people may become an ordinary commodity on the consumer market, and this is unacceptable. - Legal issues.
Lawyers will face great difficulties in matters of inheritance, maternity and paternity, marriage, etc. - Health issues.
Human cloning is unpredictable in matters of genetic inheritance, and it is unknown what abnormalities may occur in those the clones produce. - Warfare.
Military structures of states may be interested in mass cloning. Clones can become ideal soldiers. But is our world created for war?
Based on the above, we can firmly answer the question: “Is it possible to clone people?” It is forbidden. It is impossible because this not only can lead to the complete moral decay of society, but also simply will not help in solving modern problems. And why do we need copies when there are so many individuals around?
Events
Scientists have created human embryonic clone using DNA from human skin cells. In the future, such a clone could be a source of stem cells for the development of individual treatments using the DNA of the person himself.
According to researchers from the USA and Thailand, the clone is unlikely to develop into a human. The team of scientists previously carried out the entire process on monkeys. However, the embryo clones died before they could grow into adult monkeys.
Experts emphasize that they do this in order to develop treatments for incurable diseases, but many fear that nothing will now stop scientists from cloning humans.
Shukhrat Mitalipov together with a team of scientists from Oregon Health and Science University in the USA clones were created using same method used to create cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996.
First, eggs from healthy women were taken and the DNA was removed from them. Skin cell nuclei were then placed into the empty eggs and embryos were grown. When the embryos were 5-6 days old, the scientists collected the daughter cells and created a cell line. These stem cells can be transform into any cell of the body, which will allow you to heal, renew and replace damaged parts of the body.
In 2004, a researcher Hwan Wooseok from South Korea announced that for the first time he cloned a human embryo and obtained stem cells from it. However, it later turned out that the data had been falsified, and he was accused of fraud.
Human cloning
Can scientists completely clone a person? Of course, researchers have made a big breakthrough by creating a cloned embryo.
But we are still we are far from the moment when a woman gives birth to the world's first human clone. The embryo will need to be implanted using artificial insemination.
However, research shows that problems begin long before the clone is born, and this may be unsafe for humans. The chances of success for this type of procedure are very low. After all, as you know, Dolly the sheep appeared only after 277 unsuccessful attempts.
Cloning: pros and cons
There are many possible pros and cons of human cloning. They include:
Pros of cloning:
The ability to reactivate damaged cells by growing new cells and replacement organs such as the heart, liver and skin
The ability to create people with an identical set of genes as organ donors, for example, for bone marrow transplantation
The possibility of having children in infertile couples with the genetic makeup of the mother or father
Disadvantages of cloning:
Possible threat to individuality
Loss of genetic variation
Risk of a black market for fruits where people want to clone themselves
Unknown psychosocial harm that will affect family and community