> "If you clone a frog, you get a cloned frog. It hops and eats grasshoppers,
> bugs and mosquitoes. If you clone a human, what do you get? Another human.
> Big deal." [Robert McKinnel, Professor of Genetics and Cell Biology, University
> of Minnesota, as quoted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press today]
>
> Agree or disagree? Is a cloned baby just another human baby, no more or less
> individual than a baby conceived in the traditional way, or by in vitro
> fertilization?
>
I think only the cloned person can answer that question. But I do worry
about the sense of identity and self-worth of person whose "parent" is
also their twin. I'm also concerned about such a person's sense of
control over their life, given that a genetically identical person has
already lived before them.
But my biggest fear is for those of us on the "producing" end of cloned
humans. Will we as an entire planet have to learn the painful lesson
many individual parents must one day face, that we cannot force our
"children" to realize our shattered dreams on our behalf?
Rodney Dunning
e-mail: dunnirb4@wfu.edu
URL: http://www.wfu.edu/~dunnirb4
voice: 910-759-4977 or 910-759-4980
fax: 910-759-6142