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Saturday, April 25, 2015

Cloning solution to terrorism, some say

Sept. 21, 2001

The United States wants justice after the attacks Sept. 11, and one group believes the solution is cloning terrorists and their victims.

Clonaid, a group that claims to be the first human cloning company, believes using human cloning will end terrorism.

Clonaid is a company created by RAEL, an organization that believes all human life comes from extraterrestrials.

Claude Vorihon, known as "Rael," founded the group that is named for him.

Such cloning might be possible this century, said Brigitte Boissellier, director of Clonaid. Although nuclear cloning, which only produces embryos, is possible now, the future decades will bring an "exponential" increase in technology, she said.

"In 50 years, we will be amazed," she said.

This new technology would include the ability to clone adults and to download the memory and personality from the cloned person into the clone, according to a RAEL press release. The process would require a "genetic bank" in each country. People would also have to download their memories to a computer.

"That's preposterous," MU professor of medical ethics Bill Bondeson said. "If you had a cell and made a clone, it's not the same individual" you would have an individual's twin, not himself. Twins are not the same."

Clonaid does not believe humans have souls, rather a genetic code that contains each individual's personality.

Bondeson said downloading memory would not make a difference in Clonaid's argument since it is "so far out of the realm of possibility" because of cloning's early state.

"The cloned individual is totally different from the original individual," said Mike Roberts, MU professor of animal biotechnology. "The individuals created will be babies and be different from the ones derived."

Boissellier said that even though cloning dead people may seem like "science fiction," bringing people back to life, for example, with a heart massage is "perfectly rational." So, she said, clones should be considered the same person as the original.

"I believe it's not our soul, it's our DNA," Boissellier said. "If they have the same personality, they will be exactly the same."

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