Cat Cloning A Mortal Sin

Cat cloning is a mortal sin under the Vaticans new list the seven deadly sins (anyway that's my assessment). The original seven deadly sins were: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. These are personal characteristics, the focus being on the individual.

In a modern world as it shrinks (and we become more connected with peoples from other countries) the Vatican has upgraded the list and come up with these:- drug abuse (drug abuse is as much an illness in fact, perhaps this is referring to drug dealing as well), excessive wealth, genetic manipulation, morally debatable experiments, environmental pollution, social inequalities and causing poverty. They are more outward looking and relate to our relationship with others including the world generally (we are all connected).

Of these sins, I am most interested in genetic manipulation and morally debatable experiments. The scientists doing these experiments are, it seems, motivated by the desire to improve the welfare of humans (or are they more interested in personal gain or the gain of the drug companies?).

I am particularly thinking of the recent experiment by Korean scientists to clone Turkish Angora cats that glow in the dark. The purpose was to better understand diseases related to mutant genes in humans and to discover cures. A cat's genetic make up is similar to ours.

The intention is to bred more cats with genetic diseases by implanting a mutant gene that causes a disease. If we recognize ourselves as frail and sinful humans (i.e. we gain humility and lose arrogance) we can, I believe, perceive such experiments as being morally wrong.

These experiments are done I believe without any regard for the cats. There is a distinct lack of respect for other animals if we permit ourselves to cause the creation of an animal that has a serious disease and which is liable to cause suffering. Even if it may help humans.

Why are we special and more important than cats? I don't see an argument to support that. We are cleverer in some respects but that is irrelevant.

The Korean scientists have committed a mortal sin as far as I am concerned. Korea is also a country where they eat cat meat. I don't like Korea.

Photograph of poster (taken in China or Korea?) copyright mac_vegetarian and reproduced under creative commons.

Cat Cloning A Mortal Sin to Home Page