Cloning humans is no longer a fantasy. It is possible and is in the reach of science. Although a human has yet to be cloned and many people might like the idea of cloning themselves, many governments have unanimously agreed to totally ban cloning of human beings. Cloning is by no means a technology without danger and it must not be forgotten on the way into the future. This article draws upon some social and technological problems that come along with the idea of human cloning.

First, there are issues related to the donor of the human clone when alive and living in close proximity to the clone. If the clone child is regularly confronted with a version of itself that is older, more developed and that has a certain personality, then the child might learn to handle this if the reasons are explained early and clearly. However, it might cause serious identity problems later on. If the donor brings up the clone, then seeing its further-developed biological counterpart regularly, the clone child is also able to watch its development. If the donor dies, this might cause heavy psychological damages in the clone. In addition, it may be more difficult for the clone child to find friends, because cloning will probably remain an expensive business and not a widely used technique where potential friends are scared away by it. Similarly, if the clone is confronted with its donor long after its birth and does not know that it is a clone for a long time, then this could cause very big psychological damage on the clone at the time of revelation.

Second, there is a belief that with cloning the genome would be able to transport not only biological data to the clone but also knowledge and experience of the donor. Thus, some potential donors would like to clone themselves to prolong their own lives or to create a newer and better version of themselves. There may be certain talents that are transported with the genome to the clone, but most are achieved with training. Thus, the misconception of the transport of one’s intelligence to the clone is useless. Clones brought up in the expectation to fulfil a donor’s desire for immortality or intelligence will most likely disappoint them and this might invite social isolation for the clones.

Third, if any number of clones emerge from a donor then it will be a minority where the donor would advocate or command the rights of the cloned minority. If cloning is expensive, then it will remain an activity popular among the rich and they will decide the ethics of human cloning. Thus, the future of research based on human clones will be determined by a few rich people. As most businessmen follow the ethics of maximum profit, they might ignore the human rights of clones and argue that research does not damage clones. This puts the human rights of human clones in jeopardy.

Furthermore, there is another idea floating around: “How about buying a small island and putting 500 male clones on it. Let’s see how they develop without the possibility to reproduce.” The dangers to human clones in this kind of research are grave. First, the clones might manage to establish peaceful communities, or they might actually kill each other. Second, as researchers would be only interested in the results and not in the participants, cloned humans might therefore undergo a great deal of psychological damage.

Similarly, a very alarming but realistic idea is that of cloning humans for personal or public entertainment. A few people might decide to clone themselves, “just to see how I am”. One might argue that a donor would not punish his own image like that, but it is very probable that someone who clones himself just for fun will lose this fun very soon, and most probably when the clone does not develop the way he/she wants it to. To add to the fun, modern entertainment searches for the best ways to give consumers the “push”, like a drug might do. If modern TV shows want to depict brutality, then clones are a perfect, not too expensive possibility without having to face serious ethical concerns. Modern gladiators, of the kind of Running Man, would be the most famous among these.

Finally, the worst scenario is probably that of cloned humans being used as guinea pigs for questionable pseudo-scientific or medical experiments. Clones could be used to create brainless humans who would be willing to die in wars, ready to participate as biological time bombs and finally ready to be tortured in different experiments in the name of military research.

The question of allowing human cloning without the necessary policy measures and safeguards is like opening the Pandora’s box. The legalisation of human cloning will create a world where there would be a new set of challenges facing the human race: that of managing human clones! Researchers will do well to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

(The writer is doctoral candidate, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, and Knowledge Editor, Financial Chronicle, New Delhi)