Re: Cloned Sheep

CurtAdams@aol.com
Mon, 24 Feb 1997 16:02:58 -0500 (EST)


Chris.Thompson@entex.com

> But what 'rights' do the clones have? Are they just more humans with
> individual rights? Does the prime being have dominion over the clones,
> and that perhaps a clone could have it's brain function
> limited/clipped during it's gestation in order to keep the organism
> purely a cell factory?

> An interesting debate surely.

Not really. Ethically a clone is indistinguishable from an identical twin
carried by a different mother, which is already possible today. The clone is
fully human in all ways, just as identical twins are today.

Raising brain-dead humans for replacement parts or cells is an ethical issue,
but whether the humans are clones or not is quite irrelevant to the ethics.
The parts of clones are just easier to use for the cloned; that's all.