Trouble over a double

A dozen Hitlers, a couple of Mussolinis,Gandhis, Mandelas...Maybe even a few Leonardo di Caprios' and Kate Winslets thrown in for good me...

A dozen Hitlers, a couple of Mussolinis,Gandhis, Mandelas8230;Maybe even a few Leonardo di Caprios8217; and Kate Winslets thrown in for good measure. This is the stuff that makes science fiction sell. Once again fiction merges into reality as cloning ushers in a new era of genetic similarity.

So now you can ensure that your beloved dog will never die. Or your parents, friends and relatives for that matter. They can be reproduced in exact flesh and blood likeness as clones 8211; repetitions of the same genetic code that will look exactly alike. This could be mankind8217;s way of living forever. You could too. Merely by making replicas of yourself, over and over again. Of course there can be drawbacks.

Would your clone have the same personality as you? The same affinity to your parents and friends? What if it turns out to be a completely different individual altogether? These are but few of the questions that the new technology cannot yet answer. Hence it is but natural that it is caught in a debate that questions man8217;s interference with nature. Cloning as a science has not yet advanced to the science fiction scenarios. This is because most people all over the world question the use of cloning as a technology and see it more as man tampering with nature. Therefore the real clones have been restricted to animals. Dolly8217; was the first sheep to be cloned and there have been other successful attempts as well.

There are no human clones as yet, though recently, a human embryo has been cloned. There is no denying the vast potential for this science in the field of Medicine and Biology, but to some people cloning still conjures up images of a mad doctor trying to reproduce Frankenstein. The fear was compounded when an American doctor publicly vowed to create a human clone. This sent everyone including President Clinton into a tizzy!

By simple calculations, nature already has a million year headstart on what man is trying to achieve, and an increasing number of people especially religious groups, see it as unwanted tampering with God8217;s creations. Still, there are many ways the science can be put to good use. If clones were to be made of particular human organs, like the kidneys, heart, liver and eyes, so many of the problems faced by millions of people, like finding donors and matching blood types could be minimised. This would be definitely better than producing a replica, that might ensure immortality physically, but would be a different person and entity inwardly!