Cloning and Politics

[Jeff Bone]

Russell Turpin wrote:

> Sateesh Narahari:
> >I am not familiar with all religions, but the religions I am familiar with
> >do not say human body is the most important of all. It is the soul, the
> >spirit which is free, not the body. Human body is just a vehicle for the
> >journey of the soul. ..
>
> And I agree, providing we can understand the soul not as
> some magical substance, something that the gods create to
> ride along in the body, but as an epiphenomenon of neural
> processes, something the grows and changes,

Thorny problem with this is that it doesn't necessarily yield the customary
behavior --- it's quite possible that an acceptable criterion for "soulhood"
might only be found sometime postpartum.  An acceptable differentiation between
this neural epiphenomenon in biological humans and biological nonhumans might
only be possible at later stages of development.  (Language?  Tool use?
Calculus!)

Furthermore, what if we are able to duplicate the epiphenomenon without
directly implementing (rather, say, simulating --- or through other means) the
neurophysiological hardware and electrochemical context?  Have we then created
human souls, and what rights do those have?

jb