Where is My Soul?
Micheal Ledet February 23, 2013
ENG 102

Dear Oxford University of Royal Society's,
I am writing a letter basic on your research on cloning humans being at Oxford University and expressing my concern in this letter about your research. Since our origin, the ecofriendly crusade has worked to address the untold impacts human beings have had on the earth. "Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves..." (Publishing, 2007) Human activity, often marked by beliefs of domination and control of the natural world, has dramatically changed the environment. Trees and land have been clear cut, wetlands exhausted to make way for our farmland, and the air and water filled with built-up pollutants that hurt our bodies. Today, we face another change which is the major restructuring of life at the genetic level. This could propel us into a new world, devaluing each individual and completing the separation from nature that began a long time ago. Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of severe lung disease in February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpectedly early age.

The idea of cloning sounded bad to me in the first place because the person or child for that matter has no say in how it is being conceived. Yes I know no one knows how or when they were conceived. But when you think about it all the physical pain the child is going to have to endure is unthinkable almost unbearable. Would you want your child to have to go through that, just for the sake of science? A clone will not carry any of the memories of the original person.
Scientists may create the perfect "Adam" and "Eve", maybe even with extraordinary traits, but what about the soul! Man is not all flesh; we are made unique because of our supernatural side that defines the very imprint of God's architecture. Can we also clone the soul? Of course, scientists believe facts and it's impossible to unite facts with religion or faith. Science may have given us the tools to combat diseases or even cheat death sometimes and a custom made body or face, but religion gives us the discernment, sense of purpose and a connection with our Creator. Reproductive cloning would diminish the sense of uniqueness of an individual. It would violate deeply and widely held convictions concerning human individuality and freedom, and could lead to a devaluation of clones in comparison with non-clones. Reproductive cloning is inherently unsafe. At least 95% of mammalian cloning experiments have resulted in failures in the form of miscarriages, stillbirths, and life-threatening anomalies; some experts believe no clones are fully healthy. (Stephen T. Kilpatrick, 2009) The technique could not be developed in humans without putting the physical safety of the clones and the women who bear them at grave risk. If reproductive cloning is permitted to happen and becomes accepted, it is difficult to see how any other dangerous applications of genetic engineering technology could be proscribed.
Since the Human Genome has been completely mapped, what could stop these "cotton-picking" scientists from doing the impossible? Playing God? They don't even think about that. What's important is that they marvel with their newfound "toy" that could make them famous or rich or even both! Genetically altered organisms may have its perks, but there are also "unknowns".