Anatomy Shared Article Research

This blog exists for the Anatomy students at Tree of Life Christian School. We will be reading various scientific articles, summarizing our research, and then commenting on others' summaries. We hope to broaden our view of the current research surrounding the human body, and to help others see how truly amazing the design of the human body is.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Troubled in Twin Town

Summary: During the first weekend in August, Twinsburg, Ohio is saturated with a multitude of pairs of identical twins that come to engage in a twin convention. Bruno Maddox, the author of the article “Blinded by Science: Troubled in Twin Town”, attended this convention and observed, slightly unsettlingly, that the twins at that convention seemed to go to great lengths to match their clothing exactly and also found that they were often walking around hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm; he was amazed by the strong bond of love felt mutually by the twins. The reason for his traveling to the convention was reading that Barbara Prainsack of the University of Vienna had announced that, if scientists ever successfully cloned humans, those clones would “feel individuality”. She had come to this conclusion after interviewing seventeen pairs of identical twins, who reported that they did feel individuality and that they found that being a twin was a blessing and would never want to be like the rest of us, all alone in the world in our individuality. When scientists consider the topic of cloning and then get responses like this from identical twins, they begin to lean towards the idea that clones would not be victims, but would rather experience a bond with their clones that would be stronger than the love felt between two average people. If this were true, cloning humans might be beneficial in that it would increase the amount of love felt between people. Of course, the opposite might also be true; cloning humans might lead to an increase in wars and fighting in the world. The consequences of cloning are still unknown, but scientists are continuing their study of identical twins in an attempt to learn more.

Response: I believe that the idea being supported by this article is absurd; how could life that comes into being outside God’s creation experience a greater capacity for love than God-breathed life?! The bond of love felt between identical twins is strong, but it is not evidence to support the idea that clones would feel greater love than normal humans. The world does not need clones to become a more love-filled place, its people need to surrender to God’s plan for them and love others the way He loves us. Unconditional, godly love is much stronger than any “bond” felt by clones!

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/blinded-twins-clones

3 Comments:

Blogger Kat said...

Wow. I am absolutely stunned by the proposition that clones could be compared to twins! I understand that twins feel a greater bond to their twin than single humans do to their siblings. But there is no reason to believe that using one human to create a clone would cause the clone to feel more affectionate. I think it's ridiculous to consider making human clones at all; but I just find it utterly ludacris to suggest that the bond between human and clone would be anywhere similar in nature to that of twins.

Sunday, January 06, 2008 5:04:00 PM  
Blogger kirsten2009 said...

I think one thing that's interesting is that pairs of twins that were interviewed in this article talk about how blessed they are and how they wouldn't trade being a twin for anything because being a twin is the only life they've known. It seems though, that what these scientists are suggesting is that normal, individual people can have a chance to trade that in for the life of a twin. It makes me wonder what kind of psychological impact that would have. All of a sudden you're sharing your life with someone just like you. Wow. On the other hand, suggesting that the presence of a laboratory-made copy of yourself would make you feel more loved is absolutely ridiculous.

Sunday, January 06, 2008 6:48:00 PM  
Blogger Meredith said...

First of all, Maddox's logic is flawed becuase he only met those twins who are empathic enough about their identical twin-ness to go to a twin convention. He didn't talk to any who might not really care, or who absolutly hate it. As with any situation, every person exposed to it will react differently. He only interacted with one group of people with similair reactions.
However, despite Maddox's logical fallacy, Prainsack's hypothesis that we can project the opinions of clones on sharing their DNA with someone else by examining the opinions of identical twins on the same subject has some merit. But only in that both pairs of people would share the same DNA. Clones would have a whole set of other issues with their identity to grapple with. (one minor reason I'm against cloning.)
Also, I disagree with the implication that identical twins are identical in every aspect of there lives. I have had the pleasure of playing with a 3-year-old set of twins on a regular basis for the past 2 years of their lives. They are as different as could be. They have different opinons, different personalities, different likes, different strenths and weaknesses, and identical DNA. (disclaimer: though these boys look identical, the genetic testing hasn't been done on them to prove that they are identical) And they don't have any strange powers of twin-telepathy or immense love for each other over their other older brother whom they adore.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:28:00 AM  

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