Cloning What Makes Us Human?

I am not really sure where this thread belongs but personally i think it belongs in the philosophy and metaphysics forum.If it doesnt mods please feel free to move it. Several days ago my friends and i got into a discussion about cloning.Since that time i have been thinking a lot about it.The question i pose to my fellow ATS members is ''can the human soul/spirit/mind be cloned?''If scientists were to create a clone would it be a empty shell (like a comatose patient) or would it be a living,breathing,talking,walking replication of the original?Is it the soul of a person that makes them alive or is it all genetics?What makes us human?Would a clone even technically be human?Is the life in the blood or is it something else?These questions are as much philisophical as scientific.So fellow ATSers what are your opinions.I leave it to you to decide.

[edit on 14-8-2010 by I Want To Believe]

As far as I know cloned animals function as normal animals, thus so should a member of the species homo-homo-sapien.

The number 1 question I would want answered is do cloned humans dream? Second (if humans are cloned) do any of them have any special, unexplainable abilities (clairvoyance, intuition, etc.)

reply to post by Hefficide


But then again i could pose the question do animals have a soul/spirit?Humans are different from animals.What applies to them may not necessarily apply to us.Who knows?

Originally posted by Hefficide

As far as I know cloned animals function as normal animals, thus so should a member of the species homo-homo-sapien.

Identical twins are clones .

A bio-engineered clone would be a distinct individual sharing genes etc. but environmental factors and varying experiences would fashion a unique human with its own feelings, opinions, tastes etc.


What Makes Us Human? (1. Big Heads)

Google Video Link

What Makes Us Human? (2. Copycats)

Google Video Link

[edit on 14-8-2010 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 14-8-2010 by UmbraSumus]

reply to post by I Want To Believe


I believe Umbra and I are headed to the same place with this.

The clone would be a structurally identical clone at birth but would evolve through experience and environment into something unique and more than just a copy.

The clone would be a well defined and unique individual.

As far as a soul goes... Until somebody actually clones a human and we can learn from observation if they possesses all the hallmarks of a soul, all guesses are just hypothesis.

I suspect that the clone would behave exactly as any other human being would in all ways. So who knows about the more esoteric implications.

Our souls are eternal, they do not come from this dimension, this universe. A soul is like one's own perspective, you have to have conscious awareness. There is a soul chain, like a link that goes beyond the confines of physical space and time. ANY SOUL can occupy a body, but it is a very special thing when a genetic double, clone, twin, whatever you wanna call it meets with a soul that shared the same face. It creates a window, or gateway to past memories, because one can recognize the face in the mirror, the body from another life.

I believe it, that is the only thing that makes sense.

Cloning is simply duplicating nature's process. We aren't building a person, we are duplicating the process that would otherwise build a person.

A clone, IMO, would be just a human as you or I.

[edit on 14-8-2010 by misinformational]

reply to post by Hefficide


This is exactly why i created this thread to hear the opinions of ATS members on this subject.Ive always been curious to know if a artificially created human (clone)would be alive as in consciously aware.Would it have the same memories as the original (genetic memory)?would it have a conscience knowing the difference between right and wrong?Or would it be a mindless drone?I have an endless amount of questions and i am anxious to hear everyones opinion on this subject.

reply to post by I Want To Believe

If scientists were to create a clone would it be a empty shell

No - if this were the case wouldn't one twin in a set of identical twins also be a soulless husk?

The question is relying on the belief in a soul, something I don't have (at least in the ethereal superstitious sense). But if I were to assume, for the sake of argument, that a soul does exist I would still say yes, a clone has a soul. A clone, after all, is an exact copy of a human being, and all human beings supposedly have souls. So if the person being cloned has a soul wouldn't the clone automatically have one too? This is especially true if the soul is actually part of DNA.

I think there is a great danger in the belief that clones wouldn't be fully human. I wouldn't be surprised if someday there was a clone civil rights movement.