Now, the press has been having a field day with this, naturally, complete with clips from The Boys from Brazil, where Nazis made clones of Hitler. All hysteria aside, there are some real issues at hand.
First off, no clone is a full-blown duplication of you; it'd be more like a younger identical twin. They would have to grow up just like you did, and unless their experiences exactly matched your own (a daunting task), there's no way they would be you.
Far greater than the threat of human cloning is that of cloning of livestock and crops. See, while there has been an enormous outcry about human cloning, the idea of cloning livestock and crops has not gotten quite the same attention.
Already the agriculture in the industrial North is dangerously monocultured -- that is, more and more people are depending on fewer and fewer food crops and livestock for sustenance. For example, white eggs come from one variety of chicken; so, if something happened to that chicken -- say a particular disease that affects that species, it could threaten the whole lot. All our eggs literally ARE in one basket!
The same goes for potatoes, wheat, corn, rice, and oats. Only a handful of types of these food crops are grown -- the ones that make the heavily concentrated agribusiness firms the most money.
Back when there were family farms, this wasn't so much of a problem -- people grew all sorts of different crops. But capital concentration has reduced the industry to a mere handful of enormous agribusiness firms -- the family farm has almost died out. The result is less diversity. Wherever that occurs in nature, we run great risks.
And here we see the way market forces cause the problem -- since food production is Big Business, they want to get the biggest returns -- this makes experimentation and diversification an unwise move. Why risk amaranth when you can rely on wheat or corn? When these crops give you ample returns?
This has created a potentially lethal scenario -- which is why biotech firms, rather than pushing for diversity, are emphasizing, instead, hyperspecialized gene-tinkering to make their crops immune to all kinds of antigens. They are taking the high-tech route in an effort to save their profit margin.
Right now everything's okay, but should something emerge in the environment that devastates a given staple -- say corn or wheat, global famine could likely be the result.
So, where does cloning fit in? Well, we're already operating from a very uniform food base -- cloning would further enhance that. Once Monsanto or Cargill, Inc. or another big agribusiness player found some trait they liked, they'd clone it out the wazoo to make more money with this particular hybrid. The result is a super monoculture -- a copy of one particular type. In other words, all their eggs in one basket.
That's why the use of antibiotics and pesticides is so rampant in agribusiness -- they are relying on a handful of species for food, and this turning inward, this reduction of animals and plants to mere biological machines to churn out profit, has led to an intensification of particular traits and vulnerabilities -- there is precious little hybrid vigor in the agriculture industry on account of their mad rush for profits!
Now, if these firms want to play their profiteering games on their own, that's one thing; but them doing this threatens ALL of us. However much capitalists pretend otherwise, people do NEED to eat. If they screw up, have an accident, that wipes out a given staple, literally millions of people could die.
Is that worth some Monsanto shareholder making a little more of a dividend? I don't think it is. These idiots are threatening all of us, taking advantage of their clout with governments to get their way -- biotechnology remains a clearly unregulated market -- a field where the goal is getting goods to market ASAP.
Food is not some widget; food is food; without it, we die. I personally believe that biotechnology is the single greatest environmental threat humanity faces today -- it makes the threat of nuclear annihilation seem paltry -- because biotechnology is far more insidious -- a biotechnological accident would have far greater repercussions than a nuclear accident.
And for what? So some billionaire can make more money? Industrial cloning would be an enormous threat to biological diversity -- a cornerstone for life as we know it.
That's the part that really fires me up. Why should biotechnology even exist? The existing food crops and assorted animals predated humanity -- they are part of what allowed us to be -- without these food crops, we would never have been. And for literally thousands of years, humanity did just fine with these natural foods -- so why isn't nature good enough for biotech firms???
Because they want MORE profit. That's the insanity that drives these capitalists. Are we all to pay for their greed?? The only reason behind biotechnology is to wring more profit out of existing crops.
Surveys have shown that people are unwilling to eat cloned food; they aren't sure about it. And while this is probably simply superstition, this aversion is justified -- industrial cloning is not natural; it eliminates diversity (e.g., hybrid vigor), and could have untold consequences if put to large scale use.
And above all else, it is unnecessary. There is no market for bioengineered crops -- the agribusiness firms have to force their products on the market -- to create the demand that is missing.
All it will take is one serious accident; something we can't even guess -- say, a new virus breaking out, and our uniform food crops or livestock could be wiped out.
Forget building a better mousetrap; the biotechnology firm today seeks to build a better mouse (and they already have!) Ask yourself if it is worth it to risk all our lives for some dingaling's profit?? If you answer "no" to that, then make your opinion known!