Selam Leone,
Guess what, i was supposed to leave for my spring break yesterday
and my trip got delayed for school reasons...Thank god, because i got
the chance to respond to you:))
Regarding this aspect of what makes a human being?...
Are we just a mere reflection of our genes that we have inherited
at birth?..and nothing else..and thus the minute we die, does our
existence vanish forever?..or is there a component of us that
remains eternal? Those are very enticing as well as controversial
questions that had puzzled everyone from the scientific to the
religious institutions..
Let me give you my point of view:)
--I believe that as human beings we have a physcial and spiritual
component to us..The physical component of us is made up of the genetic
material.or what we call "genes or chromosomes"..that we inherit at birth..
Those set of genes that we come to this world with are certainly subject
to environmental modification...
Thus both our genetic material as well as our various encounters with the
environment governs the physical component of our existance..
And science such as medicine, gene cloning, etc. only deals with this
physical component of a human being...
--At the same time there is a component in us that is non tangible,
spiritual and thus can't be explained by science..
Although this component of us seems to be non tangible, perhaps
mysterious..more like heavenly...i still believe in its existance...
Thus we have both physical as well as spiritual component to make us
human beings...and while the physical component of us only exists while
we are on earth, the spiritual component of us is there with us whether we
are on earth..or heaven (meaning after death)..this component is what
we call the "soul"
-Now that i have established the grounds for my discussion, let me
comment on gene cloning..and its potential outcome..
A cloned individual would be able to replace the physical component
of us...(hopefully if they don't get mutated or something:)}
In other words, we could get a duplicate of our self perhaps like
nothing we have ever seen or observed before..And that is why i was
clearly making the distinction between "identical twins" and
"cloned individuas"...In comparison to identical twins, the
cloned individuals would be have a higher if not highest
genetic compatibility with the original self...
A "clone is a clone" and a "a twin is a twin"
Thus the advent of gene cloning is capable of replacing
our "physical component"..and given that the cloned
individual was exposed to the same environmental conditions,
we have successfully duplicated a human being's physical
component of self..
Now the spiritual component is a different story...
For instance, if i was to clone some one like
John F. Kennedy...and subject him to the same environmenal
conditions, we would get JFK...in his physical self...
meaning it wouldn't be the same JFK that existed before
because his spiritual self is still missing..and thus the
new JFK could have the same/different spritual
self...
Now in agreement to your point, we are a sum of our
physical and spiritual self and thus cloning wouldn't
be able to replace the "unseen part of us"
In disagreement to your point, we are equally the
sum of our physical as well as spiritual self..
The only difference is the spiritual self tends to
be eternal..but while we are on earth, our physical
self composed of our genes is equally as important as
our spiritual self...meaning, spiritual self is not
greater than our physical self..
To sum it up, both the physical as well as the spiritual
components, make us humans..and thus gene cloning could
replace the physical self but not the spiritual self..
Wow that was long:)
Thanks for your patience,
Veronica
P.S. notice that i haven't given my views on the ethical
aspects of gene cloning...
On Thu, 20 Mar 1997 LBeachy957@AOL.COM wrote:
>
> **** To contact Dehai-Admin, send mail to: dehai@universe.digex.net ****
>
>
> In a message dated 3/19/97 12:35:11 PM, kflu9777@ginko.ait.fredonia.edu
> (Veronica T. Kflu) wrote:
>
> <<
> Thus looking at identical twins and predicting the outcome
> of cloned individuals is probably not too accurate..
>
> Notice that i am just hypothesizing and thus i haven't
> quoted any factual information...this is just an
> opinion..
> >>
>
> Selam Veronica,
>
> Thank-you. You obviously know more about this type of thing than I do. I
> should have phrased my statement as a question this way: "Don't the
> differences between people have more to do with experiential perceptions and
> the unseen part of us (spiritual) than with the configuration of our genes?
> Wouldn't a true clone be one in which the mind would perceive absolutely
> everything in the same way with the same attitudes? Even then the clone
> couldn't go through the same experiences at the unique point in time in order
> to arrive at the same perception.
>
> Your opinion sounded right to me and I will believe it unless someone else
> proves you wrong:-)
>
> hawKi,
>
> Gemena
>
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