Today, the topic of cloning generates more argument than ever before. The controversy over cloning is based, in part, on the fact that there are extreme viewpoints on the subject. In my opinion, a major factor in the debate over cloning is a fear of new technology.

The numerous pages of history depict how man has always been slow to adapt to a new technology or a new way of doing things, be it the use of fire or a motorcar. This attitude has been evident in the past, with inventions such as the automobile and the television.

Nuclear power is another example of an advanced technology being abandoned, essentially out of fear. There are very few nuclear power plants left in operation, and there are not many new plants being built. This is mainly due to fear of an accident, or to the long lasting effects of this technology. Thankfully, efforts are being made in Germany to revive all the various nuclear power plants which have been left unutilised for sometime now, providing a model for numerous countries to follow.

Of course, as with everything, there is a negative side to science, too. With television, the negative is that children often watch it instead of doing homework. There is a school of thought that television violence influences children into more aggressive tendencies. A negative of automobiles is the massive pollution they cause. Nuclear power's major downfall is, aside from the immense destruction caused by an accident in Chernobyl, the long-lasting effects of the spent nuclear fuel.

Sometimes the negatives outweigh the positives, and the technology is rightfully abandoned, but in most cases the technology is abandoned simply out of fear. But, cloning is not just another new technology. It gives us the potential to change the very essence of our being. Now, what we are can be decided even before we are born. There are immense possibilities to cloning; the end of hunger worldwide, the lengthening of human life-span by decades (for a start), mental and physical illness a distant memory - the list is endless. Another extremely useful application of the cloning technology would be the cloning of organs or tissues for the body. With this, we could not only cure our suffering and dying, we could prolong our lives. It wouldn't be uncommon for people to live up to two hundred and fifty years or more. If a kidney fails in old age, take the few good cells left and clone a brand new kidney. After more development of cloning, there is even the possibility to repair brain and spinal cord damage. Christopher Reeves could walk again.

However, these potential positives do not come without a price. For example, someone using cloning technology could clone an army of Adolf Hitlers.

But, let's not forget one thing: technology is never bad in itself. However dangerous it may sound, the Hitler scenario is completely unlikely due to the great difficulty involved with the cloning of an entire living human being. Firstly, cloning is not just the photocopying of a living human being. It takes a great deal of time and effort to clone a human. Also, the clone would not have the memories and experiences that the original has. At least, that technology does not yet exist.

And, there are people who believe that it is not ethical to clone a human being. These beliefs are based on the premise that God created humans in His image, and their soul is given to them by God. Therefore, it is not for us to create a human being. But science does not recognize that a God created the universe. Science believes that the universe created itself out of a "big bang" or a "horrendous space kablooie" as some of our more descriptive friends may like to call it. From this point of view, God did not create man, and there is no moral boundary to cloning a human being. Mahabali supports this view.