"Clone Humans" – A Threat Greater Than a Dream

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, May 8, 1999

It might be easier to replace a person with a clone that has no cancer cells than to treat cancer using gene therapy. The development of biotechnology, which brought forth Dolly the sheep—an identical physical copy of its original—carries with it a terrifying implication.

The 1978 film The Boys from Brazil depicted an evil doctor, played by Gregory Peck, who went into hiding in South America with the goal of resurrecting the Nazi regime by creating a clone of Hitler. A human being exists only once in this world. The idea of reviving someone from the past goes against the natural order. In the United States, research on human cloning has been banned.

And yet, modern office workers, overwhelmed with responsibilities, sometimes fantasize about having "another version" of themselves to go to work on their behalf. The 1996 film Multiplicity, starring Michael Keaton as a construction site supervisor, brought this modern-day dream to life.

In the film, Keaton's character creates a clone of himself to help his wife pursue her career. But when he realizes that housework and childcare remain exhausting, he produces a second clone, allowing himself more leisure time for sailing and golf. However, his two clones, also feeling overwhelmed, create their own clone. In this chaotic comedy, he struggles to maintain the illusion that all four versions of himself are just one person.

The original self forbids his clones from having sexual relations, but his wife, unable to tell them apart, unknowingly shares a bed with them. Even if they are clones, they are not truly him—this raises serious concerns about human dignity.

Somewhere, an elderly woman spends her days in grief, wondering what life would be like if her son—who perished as a kamikaze pilot at twenty—had survived. Time cannot erase such sorrow. Mental illness can sometimes involve delusions, such as believing a loved one still exists or that one's own identity has split into multiple selves. But compared to the psychological distress that human cloning could inflict, how much of a threat do these conditions truly pose?