Clonebeing: The Replacement Model

As I continue my way through Stephen E. Levick's book, "Clonebeing: Exploring the Psychological and Social Dimensions," another chapter is speaking strongly to me in its relationship to adoption. Levick addresses the dimension of "replacement" as a motivation in producing a clone. His Replacement Model centers largely on bereaved parents wishing to "replace," or fill the hole left by, a deceased child. The chapter is too extensive to be described here, but the parallel with adoption lies in the concept of the "false self" so frequently addressed in adoption literature. The implications for the plight of a clone are, to me, terrifying.

When a private investigator located my mother, I learned of the "replacement reaction" that occured in my own family. My first/natural/birth parents had married because my mother was pregnant, yet ultimately opted to relinquish anyway. They remained married and, two years later, had a son together, and shortly after, had a second son. I was taken aback by the fact that they had stayed together and proceeded to have a family together. It was a bitter irony that I'd been cut out of the loop. I now understand that it was the bereavement/replacement phenomenon.

Other than puzzling over the sense of irony, I've never had any conscious emotion on it all, but the implications are obvious... responses such as resentment, rage, feelings of rejection and inadequacy, feelings of being discarded. The Replacement Model in Levick's book has made me recognize that this aspect of my adoption is worth investing some inner work on.