Re: Cloning is Here

GBurch1@aol.com
Sun, 23 Feb 1997 12:54:14 -0500 (EST)


Here's just one snippet from one of the web sites Sean points us to:

>        Dr. Patrick Dixon, author of “The Genetic Revolution,” said the
advance
> had “horrendous” implications. ‘What is its value if it comes with the
> enormous risk of some nut trying to clone himself?’
> — DR. RICHARD NICHOLSON
>Editor, "Bulletin of Medical Ethics"
>        “We will probably be able to recover the dead from
>their bodies before they die. In this way, parents could
>‘reproduce’ a carbon copy of a child who tragically died,”
>he told The Sunday Telegraph. “This is something that
>needs to be regulated and outlawed.”
>        Dr. Richard Nicholson, editor of the “Bulletin of
>Medical Ethics,” told The Sunday Telegraph he was
>surprised the government had sanctioned the experiment.
>        “It was a nice technical problem, but what is its value
>if it comes with the enormous risk of some nut trying to
>clone himself?” he asked.

Clearly, this will precipitate a firestorm of discussion and a lot of
reactions like those quoted above. I suggest we focus very closely on the
public reaction and use the List here to share any information about
developing attempts to outlaw this technology. Assuming this result is
verified, it obviously has tremendous potential. I'm almost sorry it
happened before our ideas have had more time to take root and serve as a
memetic inocculation against this sort of knee-jerk response. . .

Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com> <burchg@liddellsapp.com>
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 or http://members.aol.com/gburch1