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Friday, January 03, 2003Then there is the man who thinks that cloning himself will give him a second chance at life: He was born with cystic fibrosis, an inherited lung disease that could easily kill him within the next decade. There is no cure, but by adding a healthy version of the gene that's defective in CF, scientists have been able to "cure" individual cells taken from patients with the disease. Now Colvin wants scientists to do just that, and a little bit more: Take one of the trillions of cells in his body, fix the tiny molecular mutation that causes the disease, and then clone that single repaired cell to grow a new and literally improved copy of himself -- a newborn Jonathan Colvin who would be free of the disease. "In some respect, it would give me a second chance at life without CF," Colvin said. "It wouldn't be me, but it would be very similar to me." I hate to break it to him, but it won‚t be his brain in that clone’s body, and it won’t be his life it’s living. Recently, Mr. Colvin emailed me: well duh, that's what I said ....."It won't be me, but it will be very similar to me". The point is precisely that it won't be "my" life the clone is living; it will be a life that I might have lived had I not had CF. What would be the point of living the same life again? I suppose this is why you are med-pundit, and not philosophy-pundit :) Mr. Colvin also suggested in a subsequent email that if Steven Hawking could clone himself, then maybe the world would be graced with another physics genius. Or maybe not. That’s the point about cloning. Even though the baby has the same genes as its parent, it is still its own unique person. Just as identical twins are unique people, not the same person split in two. Our genes aren’t our destinies. Throughout our lives, we’re influenced by things beyond the control of our genes. Even our genes are influenced by factors outside our control, and can be expressed differently in different situations. That’s one reason identical twins differ from one another. There’s no reason to expect a cloned baby to live your life for you anymore than you should expect a traditionally conceived child to do so. (Many a parent has been disappointed in that expectation, and many a child made miserable.) And as for Stephen Hawking, there’s a good chance his clone wouldn’t even like physics, let alone be adept at it. posted by Sydney on 1/03/2003 08:43:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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