Group assesment.
RELIGIONS, SPIRITUALITIES, AND ETHIC IN EUROPE TODAY.
THE RAELIAN MOVEMENT
The Raelian movement was founded in 1973 by the French journalist and race car driver "Rael" (b. Claude Vorilhon in 1946) after his encounter with aliens in a volcanic mountain range in France. The aliens entrusted Rael with the "Message" that 25,000 years ago the "Elohim" visited earth and created all life using highly advanced DNA technology. Since 1945 and the discovery of nuclear and atomic technology humans have entered the "Age of Apocalypse", we now have the choice of destroying ourselves with nuclear weapons or gaining planetary consciousness and inheriting the scientific knowledge of our forefathers which will enable 4% of our species to clone itself in the future, gaining immortality (Palmer, 1995:106). Bozeman argues that the rise in modern science and the subsequent increase in secularization have not diminished the fundamental human need for meaning, belonging and purpose, and what is needed is a religion that can exist in a mutually supportive relationship with science, he believes that Raelianism is that religion (1999:154).
A RELIGIOUS RATIONAL FOR CLONING
Messer puts forward a comprehensive list of reasons people might want to utilize reproductive cloning; to allow parents who cannot conceive otherwise to have a child that is genetically related to them, to replace a child that has passed away, to create a child for organ donation, so that people who have made a significant contribution to society could be cloned so they can further their work, and as a way of achieving immortality (2001:9,10). The Raelians are the first organization to forge a religious rational for cloning, arguing that cloning is not only a scientifically positive way of moving beyond human limitations, it is also a religious imperative, to endeavor to imitate and follow in the footsteps of our creators, is built into our human nature and destiny (Bozeman, 1999:156). In 1997 Rael founded a biotechnology startup company: CLONAID.
BRIGITTE BOISSELIER
The scientific director of Clonaid is Brigitte Boisselier who has a Ph.D in physical and biomolecular chemistry and she is also a Bishop in the Raelian Church. In her preface to Rael’s book ‘Yes to Human Cloning’ (2001), she argues that historically all revolutionary ideas are rejected as impossible, monstrous or outrageous, but then a few years later it becomes recognised as viable and morally right (Rael, 2001:16). Acknowledging that the loudest protests against reproductive cloning come from the Catholic church, Boisselier criticises the basic argument they use which is ‘you must not play God’, stating that Pope John Paul II had his life saved by surgeons and their particular way of playing God on more than one occasion (2001:17). Harris, who is not a Raelian, but argues vehemently in favor of cloning, agrees with Boisselier's point, asking the question; is not all medical science that works towards saving life a form of playing God? (2004: 12-14). There are however, very few people who would argue against the use of such things as anti-biotic and kidney dialysis. Harris goes on to postulate that in fact God or nature has already set the blueprint for cloning, and it has a long history of being a successful part of human life which everybody is happy with (2004:35). Harris is, of course, talking of mono-zygotic twins.
CLONAID
The first company in the world dedicated to human cloning. It offers the following services: for $5,000 cells can be cyrogenically preserved for future use, for $200,000 a child can be cloned for couples who are unable to reproduce by any other means (Palmer, 2001:21).
MONO-ZYGOTIC TWINS
Mono-zygotic twins are natural clones and are born in one in every 270 births. Their existence and success in the world reminds us that we are already familiar with cloning as a reproductive technology, and Harris goes on to argue, highlight that most of the worst fears about cloning are exaggerated and without foundation (2004:34-37). Some of the arguments against cloning that are brought into the discussion are centered on the relationship between identity and genome (the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information, encoded in DNA). The Roman Catholic Church believe that there is a very close connection between identity and genome, and an embryo is said to be a person from the very start (Molhoek, 2012:156). Molhoek used the example of twins to explain that conflating identity with genome is a mistake, contending that because mono-zygotic twins develop from the same embryo, one genome exists in two different individuals with unique personality characteristics (2012:158). Rael agrees that CDNA does not exist in a vacuum, the environment a person interacts with helps to shape their identity, he does however believe that aspects of personality and intelligence are genetically predisposed in their initial creation by the Elohim (Rael, 2001:36).
The Raelian Arguement.
Images
http://circonflexions.free.fr/?tag=rael
http://www.antraeus.co.uk/raelians.htm
http://www.clonaid.com/print.php?content.17.review
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030102/science.htm
References
Bozeman, J, M. 1999. 'The Raelian Religion--Achieving Human Immortality Through Cloning', Nova Religio, 3, 1, pp. 154-156
Lewis, J, R. (Ed) 1995. The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. New York: State University of NY Press.
Messer, N. 2001. The Ethics of Human Cloning. Cambridge: Grove Books Ltd.
Molhoek, B. 2012. 'Dissociating genome and identity: the murky horizon of cloning', Currents In Theology And Mission, 39, 2, pp. 156-161
Palmer, S, J. 1995. “Women in the Raelian Movement: New Religions Experiments in Gender and Authority”, in Lewis, J, R. (Ed) 1995. The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. New York: State University of NY Press. pp105-135
Palmer, S, J. 2001. 'The Rael deal', Religion In The News, 4, 2, pp. 19-21
Rael. 2001. Yes to Human Cloning. Downloaded from http://www.rael.org/ last accessed on 26/02/14