The powerful and at points quite innovative argument proceeds thusly:
1) Many people object to cloning--but why?
2) We already reproduce with technology, and nearly clone via it.
3) Cloning already happens via happenstance.
4) "Fear of clones is just another form of racism." [Interesting point, eh?]
5) "The most upsetting possibility in human cloning isn't superwarriors or
dictators. It's that rich people with big egos will clone themselves. . . .
So what? Rich and egoistic folks do all sorts of annoying things . . . ."
[Ha, ha!]
6) "The 'deep ethical issues' about cloning mainly boil down to jealousy."
[In fact, they boil down to *envy*--a related but distinctly different
emotion, and one that NM in fact means to cite.]
7) Science good; ignorance bad. [The actual language nicely mixes poetry and
irony.]
NM's Idee Forte ought to appear online eventually, if it has not already, at
www.wired.com. The magazine notes that a fuller version of the piece appears
at www.slate.com/CriticalMass/97-03-13/CriticalMass.asp.
Tom