Cloning imperfections

At that point, it occurred to me that in this infinite shower of leaves, there was no other leaf preciselylike the one in my hand. There never would be. Nature was full of intricate subtleties and in every spurge and fritillary, in every convoluted trunk and in every root, there was a certain uniqueness — a distinctive shape, colouring and texture. In fact, in all of creation, nothing, I thought, is exactly like anything else.

Even more fascinating is the reality that no two people in the world look alike. We all have between us so many eyes, ears, noses and cheekbones, etc, but it is well nigh inconceivable that these might be repeated in another individual in the same proportion and colour. Life has no carbon copies, no duplicates. I am I and you are you and each of us are endowed with a remarkable individually that is irreproducible. No cloning can achieve this and it is a fact we must accept.

Life is a big mystery — we come alone as different individuals, do different things in different ways as our individuality ordains and exit alone. The leaf despite its uniqueness is destined to be burnt andreturned to earth as compost. While its uniqueness is merely physical, ours is also mental, emotional and spiritual. We think, feel and respond differently — our brains are so pre-eminently original that no cloning can make two minds think exactly alike.

This extraordinary quality of each mind is a divine marvel that should make us sit back and wonder and respect our own individuality and also realise with humility that out true greatness lies in not what we do, but in what we are.

Consider our fingerprints — less than a square inch of skin, each finger is distinctive enough to enable identification. No two persons’ fingerprints have ever matched and ever will. Can cloning ever duplicate those lines, loops and whirls? Can cloning ever replicate individual traits and passions? Even if our heroes of Kargil had been cloned, would the clones have exhibited the same dynamism, dedication, patriotism, valour with the same intensity as did our heroes? No, for cloning can at best produce just aversion.

Genetic replication of human life is possible only in theory, for it unleashes a host of biological complications that can endanger life in this world. The sooner we accept this, the better. Instead, isn’t it time, we sat back to regard God’s creation not as a mere accident, but as a cause for reverence and a reason for celebration? And what better way to celebrate than to understand the very essence of life. As R.L. Stevenson once said, “The world is so full of wonderful things. I think we should all be as happy as kings.”