The word "clone" means "copy."
-
It does not. The etymology of the word "clone" is the Greek term "clon," which means "twig." A twig shares the genetical information of its parent plant, but will not look the same. The word "clone" is often used as "copy", but one must bear in mind that only the genetic information is copied - the person can never be copied.
We will all look the same.
-
The novel Brave New World featured hordes of identical workers, all cloned from the same original. This is an extreme and unrealistic interpretation of the ramifications of cloning -- it is like saying there will be no farmland left because of the invention of the golf course.
In a purely practical sense, no government would try mass cloning because of the high cost of cloning, raising, supporting, and controlling such a huge number of individuals. In any case, public outcry would most certainly suppress any attempts at slavery.
Cloning is nothing but a different way of making babies. It has nothing to do with mass production, mass control, or mass utilization of human beings.
The clone will look exactly like the original.
Cloning ensures that the genetic material of the offspring will be identical to the original. It does not ensure that the offspring itself will be identical to the original.
Even if the genetic design is the same, surroundings and experience affect personality and lifestyle to such a great degree that in some cases the clone bears little resemblance to the original.
The clone will have different eating habits. He or she will have different tastes in design, music, taste, art and fashion. And since character and personality affect one's facial expression, the clone is even likely to be distinct in physical appearance.
Twins often resemble each other closely because they not only share genetic information, but also environment and history.
Cloning will result in the sale of humans.
Cloning humans does not have anything to do with selling people, slavery, or organ harvesting. Cloning is merely a different way of making babies. What you do with the babies has nothing to do with how the babies were made.
Just because someone inherited the exact DNA of someone else doesn't mean that person should be treated like chattel or worse. There is no reason why clones shouldn't get all the rights other humans are entitled to.
My clone and I will be interchangeable.
If you clone yourself at age 30, there will be a 30-year age difference between yourself and your clone. This alone precludes interchangeability.
Humans will be cloned to provide organs for transplant.
It is preposterous to think that any human will not enjoy full legal rights merely because he or she was produced by cloning instead of sexual intercourse. Nobody will have any more right to seize a clones' kidney than any body else's. Besides, low as our prices may be, procuring organs in third-world countries -- such as China, which sells organs derived from executed prisoners -- is still cheaper than purchasing and rearing a clone.
There are, however, companies that clone organs only -- just a heart, for instance -- and these are sold for transplant, although DreamTech is not involved in this industry.
Cloning will result in Frankenstein-like scenarios.
Reproductive cloning should not be confused with genetic engineering. In genetic engineering, scientists switch certain genes on or off, add genes, subtract genes, and generally stir up a witches' brew to cultivate certain characteristics in the offspring.
While other companies are pursuing the production of transgenic organisms in order to utilize animals for the production of organic products such as hormones, DreamTech is only involved in reproductive cloning.
Reproductive cloning is merely concerned with the duplication of existing genetic material - the only tampering we'll do (upon request) is switching the gender of the clone. Reproductive cloning in no way cultivates particular characteristics in the clone child.
The clone will necessarily be same gender as original.
Switching the sex of an embryo is easily done - at DreamTech we offer this service for a surchage of only USD 200. If you make use of our special offer and get a backup for free, you can have different-sex twins from the same original.
