As a physician, I needed to clone my mom. Then I spotted she wouldn't be herself.

• My mother died at 90 in 2018, and I struggled with grief. 
• She was married at 13 and had six youngsters, of which I used to be No. 5. 
• I needed to clone my mother till I spotted she would not be my mother however a very completely different particular person.

I suffered grief of biblical proportions when my mom died at 90 in 2018. In a haze of disappointment, it appeared comforting to think about cloning her in a fertility clinic lab, the place I may increase her as my daughter.

My mom, Naimma, was born in a distant village by the Tigris river in Iraq, the place she confronted many hardships. She grew up in a small Arabic neighborhood that shared the Muslim faith. She was formed by her mother and father, whom I by no means met. She mourned their early deaths, praying for them on the cemetery every day for years. She had an organized marriage at 13 and welcomed her first baby at 14. I used to be No. 5 of her six youngsters. She had simply come to the US after I was born and needed to be taught English.

I used to be 12 when my father died instantly in 1969 from a coronary heart assault. My mom now needed to navigate elevating her youngsters on her personal. She took the GRE, labored arduous at California State College, Los Angeles, and obtained her instructing credentials. She taught for the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District within the inside metropolis till she retired.

She was so proud that I used to be going to be a physician and made it potential for me to pay for medical college in Los Angeles. I wish to thank her for the sacrifices she made to make sure my life was higher. I wanted I may make her new life higher.

She would not be the identical individual if I cloned her

However after re-tethering to actuality about cloning my mom, I noticed the futility in my fantasy. She could be a challenge, a designed object with unrealistic expectations. She would develop up loving me as a father. Parenting is a social exercise, not purely organic.

My cloned mother could be over 90 years youthful than my actual mother. Although she may seem like her ultimately, she wouldn’t have the distinctive experiences that made her the girl I missed a lot.

My cloned mother wouldn’t meet or marry my father. She wouldn’t have her hilarious malaprops, like “The Star Bangler Spangle” and, “You’re a rat pack.” She wouldn’t be guiding me to the hadj in Mecca and exhibiting me the traditions of Ramadan.

Now faith could be her selection. She wouldn’t be underemployed due to her early restricted entry to training. Her eventual medical points may very well be mitigated and even prevented, as I would concentrate on what her physique did as she aged. I might not have to face by watching her slowly slide towards dementia.

What relationship would my brothers and sisters should a reincarnation of our mom? Some have already handed away, so even earlier than my new mother was born, she would have youngsters who died. The remainder of them may very well be jealous that she would love me greater than them. They might be confused aunts and uncles as a substitute of little children.

A clone isn’t an ideal copy of a person. If we cloned John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, or Martin Luther King Jr., these youngsters could be unlikely to fulfill the expectations to realize what was completed by their genetic predecessors.

No, there could be no solace in making an attempt to recreate my mom. The brand new Naimma could be a very completely different individual, even when, anatomically, she had the identical genome. She wouldn’t be my mother, whom I miss a lot.

Samir Shahin, MD, is a family-practice doctor in Los Angeles. He wrote a sci-fi romance novel, “Override,” about sending embryos into house with an artificial-intelligence caretaker.