CLONING VERSUS KARMA

Just as fingerprints of all individuals are unique, so are their soles and

as long as one cannot clone a sole, the Hindu doctrine of Karma in safe.

In the wake of the cloning of Dolly the ship by the Iris genetic scientist Ian Wilmut, Bill Clinton, the then President of USA, announced a moratorium on human reproductive cloning in March 1997. As a follow up, the US Congress tried to pass an anti cloning Bill but failed to work out a law that would satisfy the anti abortion camp and the business interest of the drug firms. More surprisingly, when Bill Clinton issued his orders, Senator Tom Harkin ridiculed the Presidential announce that and said that by this the President had ranked himself with Pope Paul V, who in 1616 tried to stop Galileo. But in tune with the President the ethics committee of the American Society of reproductive Medicine said in November last year that human cloning for fertility treatment did not meet standards of ethical acceptance.

          The Roman Catholic Church is opposed to any reproductive meddling for humans, including cloning. In March this year, a group of scientist, who have conducted animal cloning, confessed before a US Congressional subcommittee that human cloning could involve hundreds of failures resulting in killing of hundreds of embryoe and abnormal babies. According to a poll conducted jointly by CNN and Time, in April this tear, 90 per cent of American expressed their opinion against human clones and 76 per cent opposed idea of having children by infertile couple through cloning. At present, a more five states of the USA, namely California, Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan and Rohode Island, have laws beginning human cloning and Texas may be the sixth.

           Despite all this opposition, many believe, that research for making human clones is undergoing steady progress in tight secrecy and within a few years, or few months there may be news of the birth of the first human clone. Scientists are relentlessly trying to make human clones as the demand is rising is rising very rapidly. Many desperate presents want to bring back their dead children and most of America’s 3.5 million infertile couples like to have babies through cloning. Some want to make themselves immortal by making his own clone. A New York based businessman is planning to have some of his skin cells stored for future cloning and write a will so that his clone may inherit his property after his death.

           Despite opposition, many believe research is progressing and, within a few years, there may be a news of the birth of the first human clone.

Theoretically it is very easy to make a human clone today. Get an egg cell from the uterus of a woman and suck the nucleus out, so that it may become free from donor’s genetic influence. Then get a cell from the man whose clone is to be made, bring it very close to the egg and fuse them to get a single hybrid cell or embryo, by some artificial means. This is the most crucial stage in clone making. Scientist generally used their own imagenious techniques, which they usually keep secret. In most cases an electric shock is used to carry out the fusion and the resulting embryo is then implanted into the womb of a surrogate mother to ensure its growth.

But in practice, there are difficulties. Incase of animal cloning, 98 per cent of the embryoe die instantly. Among those who survive, most come out with frightening deformities. According to Ian Wilmut, only one out of twenty embryos implanted into the womb of the surrogate mother have the change develop into healthy full grown babies and the rest are to be killed after birth. This is most inhuman part of cloning and the main reason for which ethics and catholic priests are hostile to it. “This sort of success rate is tolerable with rats and mice but not with humans”, says Arthus Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania.

 Even a cloning is safe their still remains serious personal and social questions. “The idea of cloning or any genetic modification of humans is really horrible”, says Leon Kass, a bioethics of the university of Chicago. “Every one now things now cloning from the point of view of the parents and not form the point of view of the clone. If a woman, for instance, gives birth to her own clone, is the child her own daughter and sister?” asks Dr. Kass. He further says, “Bill a young man is starving to get a clone of his dying mother. The child may be a carbon copy of his mother. But will she be his mother?”

Cloning differs from in vitro fertilization (IVF) in that it elements the role of male sperm. So, no clone will inherit a biological father. More importantly, his or her relation with other members of the family would not be perfectly defined. Or in other words, his or her identity in the society would be horribly incomplete and this identity crisis would jeopardize the social life of the clone. Sociologists have pointed out another serious problems. If human cloning becomes safe and wide spread, parents would like their children to be copies of people of extra ordinary talent of the existing world. And hence the human society would intellectually become stagnant. The concept of “a new generation” would consequently end.

But the advocates of cloning have their own set of arguments to “there is no harm if we can re-create a dead child or clone a baby for an infertile couple”, says Panayiotis Zavos, an infertility specialist of the university of Kentucky. “If killing embryoe in abortion could be legal then why would it be illegal in the case of cloning?” asks Dr. Zavos.

There still remains another vital questions is it possible for scientists to engineer & tailor-made man by cloning. If the answer is yes, it would undoubtedly be a severe blow to the Hindu doctrine of karma and rebirth. The entire edifice of Hindu philosophy rests on the belief that man has to pass through innumerable cycle of birth and rebirth before the attainment of moksha and his deeds in past lives determine the physical, mental, moral, intellectual and spiritual faculties o’ his present life. So, if scientist, by there genetic man population, can produce new or higher or lower human qualities according to the sweet will, the very foundation of the Hindu faith would be jeopardized. Hence the point deserves a closer look.

According to scientist, two identical twins are the basic example of human clones any one of them is the clone of the other in fact, they a more similar to each other then a clone would be to his or her original as because they have same set of genes, gestate simultaneously in the same womb and are raised in the same environment. But despite close similarities they are different people. One they be politically conservative and pragmatic in daily life while the other may be liberal and prodigal so, professor Arthus Caplan says, “you cannot bring back dead one by cloning. It cannot make one immortal to, because the clone is clearly a different person. If I take twins and shoot one of them it will be faint consolation to the dead one that the other one is still alive.”

Another ethicist Ms. Susan Reed says, “Just as the finger prints of all individuals, even identical twins, are unique, so are their souls. And you cannot clone a sole.” So we have nothing to be worried about. The hidden doctrine of karma is safe so long the scientists are in capable of cloning a soul.