Dolly has been the most talked about creature in Scotland since the Lochness.

She is the first adult mammal cloned in history by process of slipping genes from an adult male.

The cloning has raised many ethical questions regarding whether humans can and should be cloned, as well. Researchers who were involved in creating Dolly say there is no ethical reason to apply the technique for humans if it is possible.

“We opposed human cloning when it was a theory,” said Carl Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents about 700 companies and research centers around the world. “Now that it may be possible, we urge that it be prohibited by law.”

Cloning is illegal in England. In the United States it is not, mainly because there has been no purpose for making such a law.

The thought of cloning humans is a fascinating one, but not one to be toyed with in reality.

However, when people talk about cloning humans, the prospect of creating a mirror image of a prominent person in history often comes to mind.

The scientific world sparked the cloning debate once before in 1993. One aspect discussed then was the possibility of using dead body cells to make a human replica.

The notions of recreating Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler were talked about.

The impact these individuals had on our country and our world is more than we will ever realize. However, for the scientific world to have ever considered making a replica of them is playing God.

Our genetic makeup consists of a fascinating array of cell structures making us who we are today. Although cloning our genetic codes to create another human being may theoretically be harmless, the frequency with which it is done could have long-term damage through mutations. This, inevitably, would make us weak in fighting disease.

The closest thing to creating a human replica beyond modern scientific control is identical twins.

Although they may have the same facial characteristics, twins often differ in height, weight and may have different distinguishing birthmarks, if any.

To create a copy of a human would be to create the most perfect twin. Even if this is possible, one aspect of cloning is beyond scientific control for all creatures.

Science does not and hopefully never will have the technology to clone the human mind.

Recreating Lincoln or Hitler may constitute stereotypical attitudes of them at face value. However, the political power held by the originals of both is something not guaranteed by a clone.

A Lincoln clone has no guarantee of matching the achievements made during the Civil War era. A Hitler clone has no guarantee of ruling during another Holocaust. A clone, though identical in biology, is still an individual with distinct thoughts and actions composed by the human brain.

Being the complex organ it is, the brain has the capacity to develop at stages too fast for cloning to keep up with.

Our daily thoughts are a stream of consciousness that cannot be predicted or matched. Since the beginning of time, it has been the complex and challenging nature of our minds that has allowed the human race the ability to communicate, go to the moon and create vaccines.

A person’s natural characteristics are not necessarily better or worse than the environment that determines their behavior.

However, when science interferes with socialization processes, it serves only to distract the nurturing aspect of a human being’s development.

That is something we should not want to see happen.

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Shuva Rahim is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Davenport.