Of course the current cloning controversy started with scientists working to – to do what exactly?  The notion that you can get a clone of yourself “living” in a closet someplace and then bringing it out to mine and extract needed parts to lengthen your life is a bit out of literary license, the Frankenstein monster concept.  Of course you and I would prefer NOT to have parts of a criminal used in our bodies to keep us alive (see my earlier essay, “Altering the Death Penalty”).  But, the scientists keep forging ahead and have now done something with a monkey that gets pretty close to its human cousins and if it could work with simians, it might be helpful with us thinking and writing types.  But, are we getting ahead of ourselves?

I’m not sure.  The biggest block to “progress” in the field of cloning is where it has to do with human anatomy, stem cells from umbilical cords and other places.  It does not have anything to do with the age old manipulation of plants which have given us disease free wheat and fruits that are combinations of several kinds and seem to warp into the raising of trees to give us lumber that could become ethanol and different kinds of vegetable life some scientist thinks will help us in the future.

I’m not so sure that things will work out the way the scientific types think they will.  Some experiment with the higgledy-piggedly surety of little children to poke hairpins into light sockets.  I can attest that this is a shocking way to find out how things work.  But what is sure is that religion has a place in the world of science and acts as a brake on unlimited experimentation.

The world religions are deeply involved in scientific research of cloning as well as being part of the start of life and the departure of life.  Belief in a deity who controls the world is the starting point but there are many different versions of what this deity might want of us. (It or she or he could be a many faceted god – thus a plural personality). What we have are a lot of self-proclaimed spokespersons who can tell us definitely what God wants us to do or not do.  One of these things is cloning and I am pretty sure I don’t want us to get involved in cloning to the point where the rich can live longer than the poor can because they have money to buy cloning products.

A this point there is controversy over buying someone’s kidney or liver that he or she is willing to sell to someone who can pay for it.  Meanwhile a lot of needy people are dying for our research into “cloning” is put on a halt because of morality problems that surely should involve all of us in serious thinking. Of course these observations have left out global warming and the appearance of new germs that are quite vicious and unconcerned about your health and mine.