Cloning Commotion
1<I do not, quite frankly, understand all the fuss over the ethics
of cloning humans, or for that matter, livestock.> 2<How is cloning
humans fundamentally different, ethically, from in vitro fertilization?>
3<It's not as if we could start growing clones to keep a handy supply
of compatible body parts in case the need for a transplant arises.>
4<The same laws rights and freedoms would apply to a clone as would
apply to anyone else.>
The thought of vast herds of genetically identical livestock
brings to mind the vast orchards of genetically identical apple trees over
the mountains from me in eastern Washington. True, 5<the risk
is that any disease or parasite that infects one member of the herd (or
one tree in the orchard) will infect them all and the farmer could be financially
wiped out in one feel swoop.> 6<It may be unwise to put all one's
eggs in one genetic basket; that's a choice each farmer must make.>
7<But is it unethical? Hardly.>
Scientific American Letters to the Editors, September 1997, p.
8
1<There is no need for all the fuss over the ethics of cloning
humans, or for that matter, livestock.>
2<Cloning humans is not fundamentally different, ethically, from
in vitro fertilization.>
3<We could not start growing clones to keep a handy supply of compatible
body parts in case the need for a transplant arises.>
7<Cloning may be unwise without being unethical.>
8[There is no need to fuss over the ethics of cloning humans.]
9[There is no need to fuss over the ethics of cloning livestock or
plants.]
Solid arrows look like this ->
Dotted arrows look like this: --->
4--->3
3--->2
(2+10)->8
5->6
6--->9
7---> the dotted arrow from 6 to 9