Sinister: human cloning

[the original pixidustlady]

i know this has absolutely bugger all to do with B&S, but i've been sitting
playing tetris, listening to the news, and the whole furore about human
cloning that's come up after that government announcement about using human
embryos for the stem cells really got me thinking.  this pro-life
campaigner - a woman - said that creating an embryo, taking the stem cells,
and then discarding the embryo, was the equivalent of murder.  i thought
that was ridiculous.  fair enough, the clump of cells that makes up an
embryo has the *potential* to become a baby and then be born and grow up to
have many many life experiences, such as listening to B&S and realising that
maybe life isnt quite so bad*,  but surely until that happens, it's just a
clump of cells.  shouldn't it have to be concious to be considered alive,
which would then make discarding it murderous?
then a scientist/boffin type guy talked about what the medical researchers
would actually DO with the cells they want to take from the embryos.
apparently,  stem cells can be used to grow organs (always useful for
transplants)  brain tissue (which he said could be used to combat things
like Parkinsons and Alzheimers) and other useful bits and bobs.  but of
course, there's lots of debate and people throwing their hands up in horror,
saying it's all a crime against the human race, etc etc.

at this point i began to think about evolution.  some people out there may
think that what i'm about to say is a harsh viewpoint, but i can only
apologise and say that it's only what I think, it's hardly gonna change the
world.  i have been thinking  recently about evolution, natural selection,
survival of the fittest etc., in relation to our species.  i think that the
human race, as a species, has backed itself into an evolutionary dead end.
the development of medical science and technology over the last 200 years
has meant that (and this is from a strictly biological perspective, i'm not
trying to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of colour, creed,
gender, religion, faith, age or anything else) people who would not have had
the chance to breed because they would not have survived, have actually done
so.  the offspring produced therefore carry negative genetic traits.  i saw
an advert in  a magazine last week for a cancer charity.  it said that one
in three people will get some form of cancer at some time in their lives.  i
was stunned.  one in three.  those aren't good odds.  statistically, out of
me and my two brothers, one of us is going to get cancer.  i think that's a
really scary thought.  it makes me wonder if all our higher brain functions
are really such a gift.  we may be able to choose who we mate with, but is
it really such a bonus to be able to override the survival instincts that
tell our brains 'not him/her, s/he is not healthy'.
  in the end, the human race is going to die because there'll be nobody left
fit enough to actually survive.
i'm just trying to look at the bigger picture with all this, a sort of world
view kinda thing.  i know that there are many people out there whose lives
have been affected by disease and things like cancer.  i'm not trying to
trivialise anyones problems or feelings, i'm just trying to make sense of
something that scares me and that, at the moment, is slowly killing someone
i love very much.  this my of dealing with that, but i'm sorry if i have
offended anyone.  i would appreciate other people's thoughts on the subject.
karen xxxxx

*did you like the way i managed to get a little relevance in there!!?!

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