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Human Cloning Isn't as Scary as It Sounds
The recent news of the successful cloning of an adult sheep--in which the
sheep's DNA was inserted into an unfertilized sheep egg to produce a lamb
with identical DNA--has generated an outpouring of ethical concerns. These
concerns are not about Dolly, the now famous sheep, nor even about the
considerable impact cloning may have on the animal breeding industry, but
rather about the possibility of cloning humans. For the most part, however,
the ethical concerns being raised are exaggerated and misplaced, because
they are based on erroneous views about what genes are and what they can
do. The danger, therefore, lies not in the power of the technology, but in the
misunderstanding of its significance.
Producing a clone of a human being would not amount to creating a 'carbon
copy'--an automaton of the sort familiar from science fiction. It would be
more like producing a delayed identical twin.
Human Cloning Raëlian
Human Cloning in Japan
Wooden Sculpture of Science GeneticsAnd just as identical twins are
two separate people--biologically, psychologically, morally and legally,
though not genetically--so a clone is a separate person from his or her
non-contemporaneous twin. To think otherwise is to embrace a belief in
genetic determinism--the view that genes determine everything about us,
and that environmental factors or the random events in human development
are utterly insignificant. The overwhelming consensus among geneticists is
that genetic determinism is false.
As geneticists have come to understand the ways in which genes operate,
they have also become aware of the myriad ways in which the environment
affects their 'expression.' The genetic contribution to the simplest physical
traits, such as height and hair color, is significantly mediated by
environmental factors. And the genetic contribution to the traits we value
most deeply, from intelligence to compassion, is conceded by even the most
enthusiastic genetic...