Would You Raise Clone of Your Child?

As parents of course we all love our children and the idea of losing a child is probably just about the most unbearable thing that we can imagine. Nobody wants to outlive their children but the idea that a child can be replaced through a process such a cloning seems questionable at best. Most people have gained whatever knowledge they have on the subject from science fiction movies, which are in fact fiction. Creating a clone of something would not really make it the same in the way most people think it would. We of course, as human beings have a unique genetic code that is specific only to the individual, but is that all we are?

From the day we are born there is a constant bombardment of environmental variables that is constantly shaping and molding us to be the people we ultimately turn out to be. Even at a young age the same exact child would be different depending on the environment they were raised in. Our genetics are a deciding factor for many aspects of our persona but as many people who study subjects such as interpersonal communication believe, many aspects of our personality are developed as a reflection of the people and the environment we grow up in. We build our own self view and self worth based on the perceptions that other people have of us. If the people around us treat us in a negative way it will affect us in a negative way but if we are received by others in a positive way it will have a more positive effect on us.

How would you really feel about a child who was a clone of your dead child? Do you really think a person could be emotionally open to a child who was more or less a constant reminder of something as painful as losing a child? What do you think the result would be on this child, even in adulthood, if they were to find out that they were actually created a replacement for another child that was lost by their parents? It is a difficult task for a lot of people to deal with the reality of finding out that they were adopted. How much more difficult would it be for someone to find out that they were created for the sole purpose of replacing someone else.

There are so many moral and ethical questions that are involved in cloning. The reality is that the technology is still relatively new and misunderstood by a public that has accepted an over sensationalized Hollywood portrayal of what cloning is and what it means. Ultimately I would have to say that the idea of cloning a child more or less boils down to the parent or parent being, for lack of a better word, selfish. A parent could always have more children or even adopt one of the countless children who are in need of a home and a family that will love them. The attempted duplication of a child to try to ease the pain of the loss of that child is not only unfair to the child but it seems it would be unfair to the parent as well.