Top Ten Reasons the Reva Clone Story Sucks Last Modified May 7, 2023
	Below is a highlighting of the top ten reasons why a Reva clone story is a bad idea and why Guiding Light should stop it as soon as possible.

1. Making a clone of Reva from one of Reva's frozen eggs would be incredibly difficult if not impossible. That's only half the chromosomes needed for cloning. She'd be no more Reva's clone than Marah is without cellular material from another part of her body involved in the cloning process.

2. Putting Reva's family and children through an attempt to clone her would be cruel and unethical. No matter what Josh's feelings might be about Reva, that he would put his children and family in this position is unthinkable.

3. What could possibly make Josh think that cloning Reva would bring her back to him? She wouldn't have Reva's memories. There's no technology anywhere near that type of cloning.

4. There's too much of Reva on the show as it is. A soap opera is supposed to have a balance of characters and stories. Allowing Reva's character to dominate the show is bad enough, but making two Revas would just mean even less balance in storylines.

5. Michael shouldn't have anywhere near the skill to bring a clone baby into the world, certainly not without years of study and experimentation and a team of researchers.

6. After the sensationalism of this Reva clone story has dried up, what will Guiding Light do with it? The story will either permeate every aspect of the show, tainting it to the point that there is no credibility for the show anymore, or it will shrivel and die, like most of the other unbelieveable or groundbreaking stories Guiding Light has done, and leave behind a messy history.

7. The moral issues of cloning are immensely difficult and are not something Guiding Light can appropriately deal with in such a poorly thought out story as this one. This story is being treated as a gimmick to gain ratings and will no doubt totally gloss over all the serious moral and religious issues that are involved in the cloning of a human being.

8. According to the story, they somehow manage to have a clone baby born by March 6th. Creating and birthing a clone baby in less than 2 weeks would be impossible with anything resembling today's medical technology. Not to mention the technology required to birth the baby without a human host. In addition, they plan to have Kim Zimmer take on the role of Reva, a month after the baby is born. So she's going to grow to middle age in a month? That's certainly not possible or even close to being accomplished. Not to mention that they couldn't do this at all without giving her Reva's memories, since she wouldn't even have time to learn the basics of feeding herself, walking, dressing herself, reading, etc.

9. Cloning is a very new technology, that required many, many tries before its first sucess. It has never been tried sucessfully on humans. That Michael would suceed in cloning Reva on his first try, without many miscarraiges and deaths, is unheard of. That he would try to do it without anywhere near the appropriate training and scientific protocols is illegal and unethical. Then there are the issues of aging the clone and implanting memories which would have to be done under this story, and couldn't possibly be done with anything remotely resembling current medical technology.

10. Guiding Light is not a science fiction show, nor is it a talk show or tabloid. In an attempt to chase after the ratings of other genres of shows, the powers at Guiding Light are forgetting that Guiding Light is a soap opera. Each story does not have to be totally likely, but it should be within the realm of possibility. This story is nowhere near that realm. By pandering to the short term ratings, Guiding Light will be losing long term viewers. When those fickle short term viewers hop onto the next sensational story, there will be very few other viewers left.

So basically, anyway you slice it, this story just doesn't work. It's doesn't reflect any attempt at realism, is unlikely to deal with the strong moral issues, will increase the story imbalance on the show, and ruins the characters of Josh, Reva, and everyone around them for a sensational attempt at ratings that could likely lose Guiding Light many viewers for good.

If you'd like to read some information about the realities of human cloning, see Yahoo's list of human cloning links.

If you agree that this storyline should never come to pass, please sign the petition and let the powers at Guiding Light know how you feel.

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