China Successfully Clones Two Goats

Two Tibetan goats have successfully been cloned by scientists in China after cells were harvested from living specimens from the Qinghai province of the Tibetan Plateau.

According to those conducting the experiment, the purpose was to find a preventative measure to help a specific livestock breed from further degenerating and is a significant development for China’s agricultural industry.

“Two cloned goats have been born in Qinghai. The first-born weighed 3.4 kg and is healthy,” said chief cloning program researcher Su Jianmin. He noted that the research can help the Tibetan goat adapt to the rough plateau environment.

The program was conducted by a team from the Northwestern Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology University. This school is practically another branch of the Chinese Communist Party as it is part of key government school programs and is “directly under the Ministry of Education.”

Since 2018, embryotic engineering has been conducted on yaks and goats by the same research team alongside the Xining Municipal Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center. Zhang Chengtu, one of the researchers from the program, stated that the study was a way to increase income for farmers and to protect “the good varieties” of Tibetan goats.

Developing gene-editing techniques is nothing new for China and as they have been consistently marching forward in this field of research, they now have some of the most inexpensive techniques that has democratized biomedical research.

Their advancement in this area has created an entirely new category of security threats to several countries including United States. From the use of genetic information to persecute dissidents and minority groups to the development of sophisticated bioweapons. These aren’t just your everyday kind of issues but they are, nonetheless, incredibly significant to humanity.

Research on cloning and gene-editing isn’t just occurring on plants and animals either. It is also being conducted on animals in order to further the process of cloning human beings in the future. Most often, the excuse given is that this would be beneficial for the human race as it would help weed out less desirable characteristics in individuals to help make humanity stronger and more intelligent but that process is what we call eugenics.

China’s ever increasing role in biomedical research is raising plenty of concern, most especially because Chinese researchers are willing to disregard ethical and regulatory constraints on genetic research.

In 2018, He Jiankui announced he had edited the genes of two twins in utero without following basic safety protocols. This landed Jiankui in jail for three years plus a fine. And this is where the cloning of God’s creation, from human beings to animals comes in – is this another attempt by man to play God?

The resounding answer is YES.

Cloning is a highly controversial form of technology with a variety of ethical obligations pinned against it, most especially when the argument surrounds research done to clone human beings, this does not negate the fact that there are still objections to the cloning of that which God created.

Perspective

At this point in human history, cloning is most likely so far off the radar for many people, including believers, that there aren’t a lot of Christian perspectives being printed about what the Bible has to say on the subject. But this is 2024, and with the advancement of such technologies as Elon Musk’s Neuralink and the manipulation of human beings through medical technologies, we need to understand the truth on this subject now more than ever.

Just as with any topic or question, we always look at the Scripture to find our answers.

The process of human cloning isn’t spelled out for us in the Bible, but we can equally say the same about the lack of the use of the word “abortion” in Scripture, but this doesn’t mean these issues aren’t addressed by God because they most certainly are!

First of all, human beings are created in the image of God and are, therefore, separate and unique from any other point in God’s creation. Genesis 1:26-27 states that man is created in God’s image and likeness. It is only too evident that human life is something to be valued and not treated like a commodity to be bought, sold or modified.

Some people have promoted human cloning for the purpose of creating new organs for those in need. This process involves taking DNA and creating a duplicate organ composed of that DNA which would greatly reduce the chances of organ rejection. While this may be true, the problem is that doing so cheapens human life as the process of cloning requires the use of human embryos. While cells can be generated to make new organs, you must kill several embryos to obtain the necessary DNA. Basically, this would result in throwing away human embryos as waste, thus eliminating the chance for those embryos to grow into full maturity.

We can also point you to Luke 1:15 and Isaiah 49:1-5 which speak of God’s plan for each life and how life begins at conception, thus, with the destruction of human embryos to achieve human cloning, is found to be in opposition to the Biblical view on human life.

There is but one Creator of all life.

Although these are fascinating advancements in technology and science, we cannot forget that man is another part of God’s creation – we are not and can never become God and if we try, there are very real consequences for our actions. Remember what happened in the garden of Eden?

Whilst elements of human cloning exist which may seem beneficial, mankind has no control over where cloning technology may go. It is foolish to assume that only good intentions will direct the utilization of cloning.

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