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Cloning-Against

When the news first swept the world about the cloning of a sheep, a wave of science-fiction reading journalists postulated that soon we would be cloning Michael Jordan in order to create a stellar basketball team. Hysteria flourished in the halls of the federal government as members of Congress and the President clamored to issue public denunciations of human cloning. Once the initial hype died down and along with it outrageous predictions, sober dialogue and debate about the ethical implications of the new technology should have followed.

Instead, we were treated to an outpouring of hand-wringing and moral condemnation. Pope John Paul II declared that every human has a "right to a unique human genome." UNESCO has weighed in as well, declaring, "Practices which are contrary to human dignity, such as reproductive cloning of human beings, shall not be permitted."1 Nineteen members of the European Council have signed an agreement prohibiting the cloning of humans saying that "… it i...

Posted by: William Katz

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