![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Two things I want to talk about today.
1. Cloned Pets.
Now, Sunday Night on Channel 7 covered the topic of cloned pets, and how people are starting to clone pets. This is the saddest thing I've ever come across, and I'll tell you why.
First of all, some of these people cloning their pets think that the new cloned pet is exactly the same as the old one. They're not. That's not the way cloning works. It's making a "twin" so to speak, an identical one. So like real twins, they might have a couple of spookily similar behaviours (even brothers and sisters have those), but they're different people. From a spiritual standpoint, they're different souls. You just can't magically make a duplicate of an animal or person. That soul lives in that time and has that experience. You can't bring it back. And even if you DID bring that soul back, it wouldn't be the one you knew, because just by living the life you knew, that spirit has changed. All those existential, philisophical and spiritual reasons aside, there's a very basic injustice going on here.
One cloned pet costs $150,000. A HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND. How many animals could be saved at a shelter with that money, or even a fraction of that money? What about the homeless animals out there that need a home? Do we ignore them in a vain attempt to bring back the furry friend we loved so well?
Personally, I think it's a disservice to that animal. Nature has a rhythm and a cycle. And I know that if I, say, cloned Xena, had I had the opportunity, I would never have known the love of Rogue. Where should she have lived? I've learned things with Rogue that I wouldn't have learnt with Xena. Neither cat is better than the other. I know in my heart that things are as they were meant to be.
The biggest reason against pet cloning is animal suffering. Most cloned animals die of some mutation or complication arising from their cloning birth. Miscarriages, mutation, gene degredation, etc. To get that one cloned pet, there's a horrible trail of dead animals that didn't have to have that suffering.
Plus if people start cloning pets, then the gene pool will eventually suffer. Genetics thrive with diversity and mixing. Whole populations of one single genetic type animal are vulnerable to all sorts of horrible mishaps, especially being wiped out by a virus or disease that that animal isn't equipped to deal with. For example, humanity survived the Bubonic Plague because our genetic diveristy meant that a number of us had the biological defenses to fight the virus.
There are so many good reasons against cloning pets, I think. I'm not saying cloning doesn't have a place in this world. Cloning stem cells is no doubt an avenue for great things. Replicating pets, however, is a misuse of that scientific gift.
~~*~~
So, apparently, WA Police, thanks to Colin "Toadface" Barnett, will be able to body search whoever they want in certain areas of the city of Perth whenever they want when on the beat late at night. From what I gather, if they don't like the look of you, they can search you.
I wonder how these Police people will be trained to spot possible drug dealers? Are they going to pick on certain types of people? Poorer looking people? Blacker or more ethnic looking people?
Do people have the right to refuse being searched in the street? Or to be refused being searched by anyone at all? What actual civil liberties are being encroached upon here?
If there's something I'm missing or I'm misunderstanding the situation, I'd love to have it made clearer because as it is, I'm mildly concerned.
1. Cloned Pets.
Now, Sunday Night on Channel 7 covered the topic of cloned pets, and how people are starting to clone pets. This is the saddest thing I've ever come across, and I'll tell you why.
First of all, some of these people cloning their pets think that the new cloned pet is exactly the same as the old one. They're not. That's not the way cloning works. It's making a "twin" so to speak, an identical one. So like real twins, they might have a couple of spookily similar behaviours (even brothers and sisters have those), but they're different people. From a spiritual standpoint, they're different souls. You just can't magically make a duplicate of an animal or person. That soul lives in that time and has that experience. You can't bring it back. And even if you DID bring that soul back, it wouldn't be the one you knew, because just by living the life you knew, that spirit has changed. All those existential, philisophical and spiritual reasons aside, there's a very basic injustice going on here.
One cloned pet costs $150,000. A HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND. How many animals could be saved at a shelter with that money, or even a fraction of that money? What about the homeless animals out there that need a home? Do we ignore them in a vain attempt to bring back the furry friend we loved so well?
Personally, I think it's a disservice to that animal. Nature has a rhythm and a cycle. And I know that if I, say, cloned Xena, had I had the opportunity, I would never have known the love of Rogue. Where should she have lived? I've learned things with Rogue that I wouldn't have learnt with Xena. Neither cat is better than the other. I know in my heart that things are as they were meant to be.
The biggest reason against pet cloning is animal suffering. Most cloned animals die of some mutation or complication arising from their cloning birth. Miscarriages, mutation, gene degredation, etc. To get that one cloned pet, there's a horrible trail of dead animals that didn't have to have that suffering.
Plus if people start cloning pets, then the gene pool will eventually suffer. Genetics thrive with diversity and mixing. Whole populations of one single genetic type animal are vulnerable to all sorts of horrible mishaps, especially being wiped out by a virus or disease that that animal isn't equipped to deal with. For example, humanity survived the Bubonic Plague because our genetic diveristy meant that a number of us had the biological defenses to fight the virus.
There are so many good reasons against cloning pets, I think. I'm not saying cloning doesn't have a place in this world. Cloning stem cells is no doubt an avenue for great things. Replicating pets, however, is a misuse of that scientific gift.
~~*~~
So, apparently, WA Police, thanks to Colin "Toadface" Barnett, will be able to body search whoever they want in certain areas of the city of Perth whenever they want when on the beat late at night. From what I gather, if they don't like the look of you, they can search you.
I wonder how these Police people will be trained to spot possible drug dealers? Are they going to pick on certain types of people? Poorer looking people? Blacker or more ethnic looking people?
Do people have the right to refuse being searched in the street? Or to be refused being searched by anyone at all? What actual civil liberties are being encroached upon here?
If there's something I'm missing or I'm misunderstanding the situation, I'd love to have it made clearer because as it is, I'm mildly concerned.
