[ExI] Ethics of cloning

[BillK]

On Wed, 1 Jul 2020 at 19:44, Keith Henson via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> I have saved DNA from about a dozen interesting people who were not
> suspended (and one cat).
>
> I might not do it, but post-singularity, I want the option to raise
> clones of these people.  I am well aware that a clone will not be the
> person, but to a considerable extent, personality comes from genes.
> They should be interesting people.
>
> The problem is that I am not sure of the ethics involved.  I assume
> their DNA will be cleaned of the various problems that caused them to
> die early or caused them medical problems.
>
> Having children is a random crapshoot, you have no idea of what you
> will get, except that (on average) exceptional parents will have
> children that are closer to the norm (classical regression to the
> mean).  With clones, you have a much better idea of what you are going
> to get.
>
> Still, the idea needs thinking about.  Does a person who raises clones
> have more responsibility than those who have children?
>
> Keith
> _______________________________________________


Anything with 'ethics' involved is opening a can of worms, and human
cloning is no exception.

You are suggesting doing human cloning post-singularity, so you don't
have to worry about the ethics until after the singularity arrives.
All the current ethical, technical and legal problems apply to
concerns about people doing human cloning *now*. After the
singularity, ethics (like everything else) will be very different. DNA
will be manipulated and improved so that present-time DNA will be
regarded as quaint and old-fashioned, like a Ford Model T.


BillK