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What if our society uses new-found technologies of genetic engineering ” to interfere with the biological nature of human beings? Might that not be disastrous?
What about cloning, for instance? Cloning is a term originally used in connection with nonsexual reproduction of plants and very simple animal. Now it is coming into use in connection with higher animals, since biologists are finding ways of starting with an individual cell of a grown animal and inducing it to multiply into the same way in the future.
But is cloning a safe thing to unleash on society? Might it not be used for destructive purposes? For instance, might not some ruling group decide to clone their submissive, downtrodden peasantry, and thus produce endless hordes of semi-robots who will slave to keep a few in luxury and who may even serve as endless ranks of soldiers designed to conquer the rest of the world? A dreadful thought, but an unnecessary fear. For one thing, there is no need to clone for the purpose. The ordinary method of reproduction produces all the human beings that are needed and as rapidly as is needed. Right now, the ordinary method is producing so many people as to put civilization in danger of imminent destruction. What more can cloning do?
Secondly, unskilled semi-robots cannot be successfully pitted against the skilled users of machine, either on farms, in factories or in armies. Any nation depending on downtrodden masses will find itself an easy mark for exploitation by a less populous but more skilled and versatile society. This has happened in the past often enough. But even if we forget about self-hordes, what about the cloning of a relatively few individuals? There are rich people who could afford the expense, or politicians who could have the influence for it, or the gifted who could undergo it by popular demand. There can be two if a particular banker or governor or scientist — or three — or a thousand. Might this not create a kind of privileged caste, who would reproduce themselves in greater and greater numbers, and who would gradually take over the world?
Before we grow concerned about this, we must ask whether there will really be any great demand for cloning. Would you want to be cloned? The new individual formed your cell will have your genes and therefore your appearance and, possibly, talents, but he will not be you. The clone will be, at best, merely your identical twin. Identical twins share the same genetic pattern, but they each have own individuality and are separate persons. Cloning is not a pathway to immortality, then, because your consciousness does not survive in your
clone, any more than it would in your identical twin if you had one. In fact, your clone would be far less than your identical twin. What shapes and forms a personality is not genes alone, but all the environment to which it is exposed. Identical twins grow up in identical surroundings, in the same family, and under each other’s influence. A clone of yourself, perhaps thirty of forty years younger, would grow up in a different world altogether and would be shaped by influences that would be sure to make him less and less like you as he grows older.
He may even earn your jealousy. After all, you are old and he is young. You may once have been poor and struggled to become well-to-do, but he will be well-to-do from the start. The mere fact that you won’t be able to view it as a child, but as another competing and better-advantaged you, may accentuate the jealousy. No! Imagine that, after some initial experiments, the demand for cloning will be virtually nonexistent.
46. The central theme of the essay is .
A. genetic engineers are experimenting with cloning
B. the cloning of human could produce a privileged class
C. worries about the dangers of human cloning are ill-founded
D. personality traits cannot be passed on though cloning
47. The author assumes that the readers is .
A. afraid of a nation of dictators B. worried about the abuses of cloning
C. egger to put cloning to practical use D. ready to be cloned
48. The author assumes that the reader thinks “immortality” .
A. frightening B. unavoidable C. profitable D. desirable
49. To hold the reader’s interest, the author •
A. used quotations by famous people B. asks frequent questions of the reader
C. presents many research statistics D. tells many amusing stories
50. The word “hordes” used in the passage means •
A. swarms of fish B. large groups of people
C. mountain ranges D. large fields of grain