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I was thinking about this earlier today and wanted to get havah aminas from the oilam
If they ever started cloning Humans what are the ramafacations (Halachic or otherwise) of:
does the clone get it’s own Neshama?
Did you give birth to the clone (regarding Kibud Av V’eim)?
if you didn’t how is it related to you?
if it’s still considered you and it married someone are you married to that person?Do you know how cloning is done?
(Your clone would not be “considered you.” That should be obvious.)
A Golem?
Didn’t Yaakov Avinu do the first cloning with the sheep?
A newborn clone will be a baby that it exactly you were when you were a baby. if you are human, so will the kid be. Since we allow test tube babies, and a clone has fewer shailohs , what will the problem be?
Neshama – If such a clone functioned as a human being, it obviously has a neshama as much as any human has.
Birth – did this clone develop in a womb? That would probably be it’s mother. In a lab/incubator device? Probably doesn’t have halachic parents.
Kibud av v’eim – see previous answer.
Marriage – don’t be silly.
As an aside, you seem to be assuming the clone is jewish. A jew is one who is born to a jewish mother or has a proper conversion. If developed in a lab, the clone has neither qualification.
“does the clone get it’s own Neshama?“
Why not?
“Did you give birth to the clone (regarding Kibud Av V’eim)?”Who is “you” in that sentence the DNA which is copied or the womb that carries it?
if you didn’t how is it related to you?”
Same as above“if it’s still considered you and it married someone are you married to that person?”
This doesn’t make much sense. Why would a clone be “considered you”?A clone would be more like an identical twin- same genetically as the person who donated his cells to the clone. Yet, since genetics alone do not
We’re assuming that somatic cells that were taken from another person and converted into an early embryo in the lab were then implanted into a surrogate mother. The question would be is the birth/surrogate mother the halachic mother (I’m sure halacha already deals with this) or the source of the maternal DNA- ie the mother of the person who donated the cells to be cloned. I’m surprised you did not ask who would be the father- the only possibility I can think of is the source of the paternal DNA- the donor’s father, but I wonder if that would be halachically valid, whether if differs from a “usual” case of IVF, which most poskim hold that the paternal genetic donor is the halachic father (notable exception being R’ Chaim Kanievsky who apparently holds that an IVF baby is not meychuas to his genetic father).“You” are your neshama. Hashem gives you your body which is just a levush. I take it for granted that your body’s DNA and all the ramifications of your genetic make-up are simply part of the body that Hashem gives you – again “you” being the neshama. By creating a living clone body one is still not able to determine the neshama inside of it. Thus a clone is a different person that the source.
Do monozygotic twins both have neshamos? Can such a twin marry without halachic problems?
I think there are ethical concerns about cloning people.
Imagine if they made many clones of me. All the leftists would go screaming bloody murder!
Logically, any human with nishmas Chaim has a Neshoma. One question here is birth. Another may be yerusha. And Shidduchim may be a problem.
B’chor, yerusha, pidyon haben, peter rechem, etc.
Who is the father and mother?
The Chacham Tzvi (Responsa 93) says that a golem does not have a neshama and cannot be counted in a minyan. It wouldseem that this would also be true of a clone.
What’s the similarity between a clone and a golem, exactly? If we were talking about robot, I hear. But a clone is essentially an I.V. twin – what’s the basis of this whole discussion?
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