/ 27 March 1997

Clones are human too

Cloning a human being would not produce a double, argues Saliem Fakir, who says recent commentators have missed the point

IMPLICIT in the recent articles about cloning is the assumption that once a human being has been replicated from the same genetic stock, the cloned person will be a prototype of the real thing in all respects. What the debate misses is that to have the same genetic constituent does not mean you can create a perfect replica – another Einstein or Michael Jackson. That you can produce a physical lookalike of Einstein does not mean that he will come up with the theory of relativity. The Jackson clone might not be able to sing and dance like the original.

This is because our social, political and economic environments play a large role in shaping our personalities, and who we ultimately become.

Social environments provide us with certain inducements and opportunities that allow us to use our innate talents in many different ways. Clones would never be operating in a world identical to that of their originals: their environments would be totally different. And it is not clear how these clones would respond to such environments and be shaped by them.

Secondly, at the early stages of foetal development and genetic expression, the external environment can potentially have influences that give our Einstein and Jackson unexpected personality traits. We know very little of genetic expression at the early stages of life and could not control with any degree of precision what our clone would be.

Though commentators generally missed the point about the scientific effects of cloning, they correctly identified it as an ethical issue of great significance. Alexander Chancellor correctly asked, in a recent article on these pages, in what way clones are less human than ourselves. Surely they are entitled to the same human rights?

Why should a clone, as in the movie Blade Runner, become a dispensable utility serving the particular ends of their masters and when they have done what we want them to do, we kill them off? It is not clear why a clone should be less human than its originator.

The notion of a clone borders on the idea of the “other” and it is here that we could become accustomed to the idea that they are less than human. The stereotypes about clones that we have acquired from sci-fi movies have influenced the way we conceive of and discuss clones. We should beware of cultivating a language that is likely to deprive them of their humanness and individuality.

Saliem Fakir is a programme manager at the Land and Agriculture Policy Centre