We have made incredible advances in genetics research, not only in the last fifty years, but even in the last ten years.

With that research, we have been able to almost completely map the human gene. With that knowledge, we can find new ways to treat genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis and alzheimer’s disease.

Unfortunately, that new research can be abused as well. It seems more and more likely that someone someday will have the technology, expertise, and money at his/her disposal to clone human beings.

The production of identical humans is a frightening concept that one should only find in an Aldous Huxley novel. In this case, fiction is rapidly becoming fact.

The statements of scientist Richard Seed and Iowa senator Tom Harkin hopefully are waking up society to the realities of cloning. Their actions are an outrage to the natural order.

What is the natural order? There are many variations, but there are two things every human has in common: they are born and they die. Cloning upsets this natural order and would make existing global problems even worse.

Life expectancy grows every year. With the idea of cloning, theoretically a person could live forever.

With the rapid population growth now taking place, that is clearly not a good idea.

Currently, medical research is advancing at close to the same rate as new diseases and ailments that are meant to thin out the human herd are discovered. It may sound cruel, but aren’t humans at some point meant to die? Wouldn’t cloning make this situation even worse?

We know many scientists have good intentions in researching cloning. As the saying goes, though, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

As the human population begins to grow, as technology advances, more and more people crowd this planet. The U.N. projects that by the year 2020, seven billion people will inhabit this planet. If human cloning is perfected, those numbers will be only a minimum.

Obviously overpopulation is just one drawback of cloning. Those who support it have not been able to tell society why it would be beneficial for the rest of us.

Maybe that’s because there aren’t enough benefits to justify it.