Becoming Immortal by Cloning

I just watched a show on the science channel, and some person says we can be immortal through cloning.

He says by cloning and then somehow download or existing mind into the new body, we can become immortal.

What do you think about this topic?

 

I think that cloning to become immortal would be morally wrong. There are clones of animals that exist fine and seem to have their own lives independent etc of the original being. It would technically be murder to me to take a clone and put in the 'mind' of the original to it because that clone is now a life of its own. That's just my thoughts on it as I think every life has its own 'soul' so even if it were possible it would be cruel.

 

Well, I don't believe that. If you ''download'' the brain into the body, as you say, then that would mean that nly the person's memory and subconscience would be copied into a pseudo-being. If I were to clone myself and download my mind into the clone, then the only thing that would happen would be another me. For what that man suggests to actually happen, you'd somehow have to extract the brain and place it in a new body, and no human in the world can surve such a procedure, no matter how it's done.

Mankind should just realise: Eternal life is beyond human reach. Since the dawn of time, mankind has tried to create everlasting life, but have you ever once heard of anyone succeding? I think not.

 

No, I don't believe it. Reguardless of how many times your cloned, your clone will still age. And I think clones change....I think they are different from you....there is only one you....SOMETHING must be different from clones. Living things are ment to go to Heaven or Hell....clone or not. Everything is judged and dies....

 

I don't know much about cloning, but I think that whole idea of it is... weird. Especially for the actual clone, seeing as they would be their own person, yet not. I cant even imagine the identity crisis situation one might go through. I mean it's almost seems like cruelty to destine a being into such an awkward existence.

And to seek immortality by means of it? I wonder how it would play out between the point at which the prototype(for lack of a better word) dies and the clone is birthed.

I've never heard this idea though, very interesting...

 

Jesus gives you everlasting life...

<.<

>.>

o.o

XDDDDDD

 

Cloning you say?

Well, to break it down, cloning is merely the process by which you take your genetic material and FORCE it to become a carbon copy of your own. By all means, techinicality if your genetics granted you a mind of your own, so should your clone have a mind of its own.

Case and point, IDENTICAL TWINS. They both have the same DNA and in many regards they will lead seperate yet similiar lives. Cloning is an artificial process of this so in a way, it would be like having a twin that was years younger than you.

Also, I believe they proved that cloning showed that the cloned individual would have a much shorter life span...but upon doing a quick reference, the early death was attributed to a sort of infection.

Anyway, downloading the brain may seem impossible to us now, but so was flying a little over a hundred years ago. Technology is taking greater leaps in these past few decades...so don't say impossible so early in the game.

In a way cloning can be considered a rather...interesting usage of reproductive material. However it shouldn't be used for immortality. We're already having trouble supporting people who live a long time much less for forever.

Anyway, cloning by iteself with no mention of using it as a means of "becoming immortal" is no more disgusting or immoral than artificial insemination, the only difference is that the genetic map is more specific for the individual. :\

 

Clonning's illegal in the USA. Also being immortal is not for mortals.

Not wise to clone youreself because of reasons like someone could switch the bodies, the downloading process could be a total flop and you end up exploding, or it would be stupid because in the future you probably won't be able to keep up with new trends. (girls mostly)

 

The downloading thing to me sounds too complicated!
But in the future, they estimate that by 2030, they hope to have a computer with the capacity of a human brain. O.o

I hope they don't download......
On the other hand, I wonder how it would feel!

 

I think he doesn't get that we're not robots.

Number one, if you clone someone, it's going to take a whole hell of a lot to put the information in them. If they make the clone at current age, it'd be almost dead by the time they got the information. BUt if they cloned them as if at birth, it'd be a waste of time because it's a new person.

YOu can't clone someone and expect them to be the same. They don't have the same soul, might I say, so they're not the same person, and so it's not immortality.

Get what I'm saying? o-o

 

it's definitely impossible. the mind is something that's intangible, so you can't simply "download" it into another being. also, it's been found that clones die after a while for an unknown reason (as in, no where close to a full life, like i think a month).

 

Want to know what I personally think? Well the truth is I think it is a bunch of crap, how can it be you? You have a spirit, You can move the mind but you can't move the soul. So how can you be you in a new body? The answer is, You cant be immortal no matter what you do. You will need to go to to hell or heaven sooner or later. If you have a clone at the same age as you its just your mind, like a zombie, if you believe that can really happen. Of course I know there is no such thing as a Zombie. All in all I still think that is all crap.

 

EXACTLY my thoughts

 

Even if you could do that i personally would hate it eventually i would tire of life seeing everything that there is to see, life would become so boring

 

Immortality. Huh. Well, I'm far from being as intelligent as my peers, but, eh, I'll take a crack at it.

First off, I agree with the others: immortality is, in fact, impossible. It also seems to go against all morals I can find. Now, say you manage to get the millions of dollars it takes to be cloned. Then, provided you survive, your mind is transferred into the cloned body. Congradulations, you just committed murder by killing BOTH your clone AND suicide by killing your body. So, immortal? No. And you killed your poor, innocent clone in the process. Wow. Mind-boggling, huh? Now, even though your mind survives, will IT be immortal? Depends. Did your clone's body stay alive long enough for the mind transfer? Who's to say it won't fail the next time? Just how long could your mind be preserved anyway? Think about it. Could you honestly repeat the procedure until the end of time? WILL there be an end of time? Would you just keep doing it until some hellish armageddon occurs? Could you? Think on all of these questions, and I think you'll find the answer.

I gotta go. His Majesty, out.

 

*Broken record* So was flying a little over a hundred years ago. And we still remember long dead figures don't we? Hmmm, interesting they aren't here physically yes, but they have been immoratalized to some extent.

Now as for morals, you are merely seeing the black and white of this situation. You are also not looking at it with an entirely clear mind. First you need to figure out why one would even want to LIVE beyond their current mortal scope, immortality is a bit high of a goal, but what about simply prolonging one's life? If you are shaking your head at artificial extension of your natural life, QUICK STOP TAKING MEDICATION OR ANYTHING PRESCRIBED.

Back to my point....think of all of the reasons someone may want to live longer...some reason as to why their current body is not sufficent...think...oh I don't know...PEOPLE WITH TERMINAL ILLNESSES, especially children. Oh the children that "God" so graced us with them to be here on earth just to be ripped away back to the afterlife, that's absolutely kind and benevolent! So think, what if there was a method of extending that child's life? Cloning is not the only process by which to obtain "another body" there can easily be other synthetic methods. Really, just give science enough time and the answer may very well be spewed forth. (Also consider organ donations, techinically you are tearing out the innards of someone just to save another's life. It isn't beautiful, but the person who's life is saved is priceless.)

And if cloning really must be relied upon...the brain upload should be within the first couple weeks of the fetus's devolopment...the brain has not devoloped to any "existence" up until that point, so by all techinicality, its a matter of what brain tissue gets there first (no different from the sperm that first meets the egg).

So really, who wants immortality or at least a slightly longer life? Ask the people who want it. And King, sorry I cannot offer the answers to your last rhetorical ones, I have no desire to be immortal after all.

-And if you plan to argue with me, do so with some proof, no OMG YOU ARE SO IMMORAL/OMG BUT THINK OF THE SOULZ! I am looking at this from an objective view.-

 

I guess, I can't see it but in a black and white way really. As I mentioned before, cloning a living being does in essence mean that it is a new life. That person could live free and develop as animals had or an identical twin could, so for someone to just use it to override it...that seems like murder to me. The new life would be a new life and I just can't figure a way to make it not murder of the essence of a new being.

Some people feel a clone is just a carbon copy of a person, but I am a twin, even if fraternal...I know others who are identical twins...and well, we all are different, despite sharing genes. I do kind of get tired of 'clone' scenarios where the clone is treated as just a casual being that can be created and destroyed as if it has no life of its own, or soul. It's a living being and if it can walk, talk, breed etc...it is a human being, or whatever the clone species was derived from. I can't imagine it not being that way with all the proof we have of animals living that are clones, and identical twins.

However, the benefits of cloning say body parts, such as blood, skin, organs and such for people I could see as a way of prolonging life that well, isn't so bad really and I'd have nothing against that. With how the body often can only accept donors that are very closely matched for things like kidneys, and how short we are often with blood donations, ...and skin for burn victims and such, well, these things could make a difference. Terminal illnesses could also be aided by cloning possibly of organs and such from a parental donor or sibling and neurological systems could be helped. Also with embryonic studies, neurological conditions are being tested and in some places, positive results happen, so cloning a whole body...I don't see the need.

So I won't say it is -impossible- of course, because yes, someday it may very well be possible that a mental impression and memories could be passed onto a clone body, but at the same time, my point would be that to get a clone old enough to be an adult any way, it would have to move and live of its own accord and develop. I cannot imagine putting all those memories etc in an infant, or baby's mind and hope it could retain information, considering children even cannot remember much of what happened to them before the age of three. Also, the developmental body issues themselves would be backwards and it could cause a lot of hormonal imbalances. I can't see it just being locked up, there it is, with no soul of its own etc and just being a body, yet being able to be produced efficiently. So my thoughts still would be that it is ethically a murder process.

 

i dunno, if you stay healthy enough, maybe no one has to die if they dont' want to?

 

I...assume that was a joke. :I

 

Cloning organs is the stem cell research's expertise I believe...or would like to believe.

As for how it could be odd, there is a disorder at times where the baby is born without a brain, techinically the cloning could go something like that, but in many ways, yes I would prefer a non-biological means of a "new-vessel" (something prosthetic). (There is also the syndrome which accerlates the aging of a child, so new organs would not help them.)

Also some people tend to forget that ethic is merely a matter of what turns of the stomach and what bothers I'm a very good example of that, and I apologize for not quite being able to see it in that light.

However, for some strange reason, I still think if science was given enough time, they could find a loophole in this morality/ethics when it pertains to cloning. After all, if they can create organs out of nothing, isn't a body merely a collection of these organs? Surely they can/could devise a way so that no "spirit" was murdered in the process.

-Still what qualifies as murder? By rigid techinicality, it is a biological shortening of a life...not the mind. People who are vegatables are not "dead" in the literal sense. Actually I don't even know the point of this extra statement, but I thought I would throw it out there.-