Pin the Tail on the Donkey
I'm not sure what made me think about cloning today. Maybe it was because I read an article in Harpers yesterday about the techniques of extracting pig semen to be artificially injected into sows. For some odd reason, this made me randomly reflect on Dolly, the first cloned animal. Maybe it has more to do with my own mortality than anything, but rest assure, if my body fails me, let it go.
In the biological yard sale or supermarket, one is already very familiar with shopping for commodities like blood, sperm, ovums, organs, etc. Coming as a boost to consumer mentalities however, cloning gives new meanings to the human body as merchandise, much like pigs on the chopping block. Instead of staying content with the parts we have, it would acquire novel techniques to act as a wholesaler for the packaging and marketing of made-to-order clones. In its instrumental garb, cloning may become an agent of commercial exploration very much like the rent-a-womb syndrome from which we currently suffer. Also, if success with transgenic animals, pigs for example, is any yardstick, then there is nothing whimsical about the idea of conducting business through a mail order catalogue of genetic cartography.
Furthermore, there is an inherent contradiction in human cloning. The very process is an exercise in dehumanization. By negating inviolability of the human body, cloning is an intrusion into the best mobile of the genetic ecosystem. Even with the primordial experiment, not much was accomplished without introducing synthetic elements. Virtual reality is getting gene deep baby! The vigor of this invasive procedure will only be enhanced by an awesome command of parallel computing power augmented by genetic cartography.
But the questions that run even deeper in my mind are: are our bodies only bundles of genes, tissues, and organs? What is a person then? A body? What is the essence of owning one's own body? What is the quintessential factor that gives us an intensely personal experience of bodily pleasures, orgasms included, at least for me? In this Cartesian duality of body vs. person, how far can one go in denying existential identity vis-a-vis its proximity with the organic composition? Are my Aristotelian queries vainly damp? Perhaps.
However, true to the spirit of the Greek tragedy, the Hellenistic outlook described the body as a dungeon of the soul, much like the gnostics do. It is not until Christ dies that they feel His soul was free. Although the Catholic church, as the History channel was so kind to recently point out, elevated the body to the status of a sanctuary for the purpose of villifying the apostle Judas, the church never the less repudiated bodily pleasure in favor of all things spiritual. Celibacy is probably one of the best examples of this albeit an extreme one. Does cloning then represent an embodiment of cognitive vestige from the Hellenistic culture that blends with the onus of the "original sin?" Is it the malevolence of the rebellious? Is it the self-perpetuation of a defiant? However comforting the Papal denunciation of cloning may be in the interest of the body, the fact remains that Western Science, even in the post-postmodern age, is not free from its embedding. As if Christianity should have any say in anything, foul fuckers!
Not many people realize it however, but Bill Clinton was the first to ban federal funding for research on human cloning. He also asked that all researchers even those who do not use federal funding agree to a moratorium on cloning research for five years, until more cloning can be learned from animal studies. I bet PETA wishes Clinton was still president. But, the cloning of humans continues to be a serious and dangerous venture. I am only glad that my body is my own, at least for now.
In the biological yard sale or supermarket, one is already very familiar with shopping for commodities like blood, sperm, ovums, organs, etc. Coming as a boost to consumer mentalities however, cloning gives new meanings to the human body as merchandise, much like pigs on the chopping block. Instead of staying content with the parts we have, it would acquire novel techniques to act as a wholesaler for the packaging and marketing of made-to-order clones. In its instrumental garb, cloning may become an agent of commercial exploration very much like the rent-a-womb syndrome from which we currently suffer. Also, if success with transgenic animals, pigs for example, is any yardstick, then there is nothing whimsical about the idea of conducting business through a mail order catalogue of genetic cartography.
Furthermore, there is an inherent contradiction in human cloning. The very process is an exercise in dehumanization. By negating inviolability of the human body, cloning is an intrusion into the best mobile of the genetic ecosystem. Even with the primordial experiment, not much was accomplished without introducing synthetic elements. Virtual reality is getting gene deep baby! The vigor of this invasive procedure will only be enhanced by an awesome command of parallel computing power augmented by genetic cartography.
But the questions that run even deeper in my mind are: are our bodies only bundles of genes, tissues, and organs? What is a person then? A body? What is the essence of owning one's own body? What is the quintessential factor that gives us an intensely personal experience of bodily pleasures, orgasms included, at least for me? In this Cartesian duality of body vs. person, how far can one go in denying existential identity vis-a-vis its proximity with the organic composition? Are my Aristotelian queries vainly damp? Perhaps.
However, true to the spirit of the Greek tragedy, the Hellenistic outlook described the body as a dungeon of the soul, much like the gnostics do. It is not until Christ dies that they feel His soul was free. Although the Catholic church, as the History channel was so kind to recently point out, elevated the body to the status of a sanctuary for the purpose of villifying the apostle Judas, the church never the less repudiated bodily pleasure in favor of all things spiritual. Celibacy is probably one of the best examples of this albeit an extreme one. Does cloning then represent an embodiment of cognitive vestige from the Hellenistic culture that blends with the onus of the "original sin?" Is it the malevolence of the rebellious? Is it the self-perpetuation of a defiant? However comforting the Papal denunciation of cloning may be in the interest of the body, the fact remains that Western Science, even in the post-postmodern age, is not free from its embedding. As if Christianity should have any say in anything, foul fuckers!
Not many people realize it however, but Bill Clinton was the first to ban federal funding for research on human cloning. He also asked that all researchers even those who do not use federal funding agree to a moratorium on cloning research for five years, until more cloning can be learned from animal studies. I bet PETA wishes Clinton was still president. But, the cloning of humans continues to be a serious and dangerous venture. I am only glad that my body is my own, at least for now.
posted by Caleab at 2:28 PM
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