Society Must Face Its Cloning Fears Before Accepting or Rejecting Human Cloning, Says UB Research Chief

News that a company named Clonaid may have used cloning techniques that resulted in the birth of a baby girl last week has raised a firestorm of controversy over the legal and ethical implications. But apart from medical issues, which future research will need to resolve, what is it about reproductive cloning that makes us so nervous? Jaylan Turkkan, vice president for research at the University at Buffalo and professor of psychology, shares her thoughts.

o Cloning is likely to be misused by narcissists who want an identical reproduction of themselves. "A baby born through cloning techniques will be born in a different era, will be brought up in a different family, will be exposed to different nutrition, family/friends, education and life events than the adult DNA donor," Turkkan says. "He or she will be a unique person" who simply shares another's DNA, as does an identical twin.

o Clones will be used for replacement organs. A legal impossibility, according to Turkkan. "We should make every effort to protect human rights regardless of the genetic method by which a child is born. Murder is illegal -- and companies will not be allowed to sell children or adults for organ replacement."

o The fear factor. "What is it that gives us the willies about human cloning, no matter now objective and scientific we think we are?" she asks. "The idea of duality, either as an exact twin copy or as a polar opposite of ourselves, is central to human thought and culture. Carl Jung wrote about an archetypal Double as an "alter-ego" -- a rival, or dark and hidden part of our nature. It may not be human clones that frighten us, but a dark glimpse of ourselves.

"Before we accept or reject the technology of human reproductive cloning, in particular, or genetic engineering, generally, we must face head on what it is that makes us so uncomfortable," Turkkan says. "We still may disagree, but we will know what it is we are afraid of."