"As an atheist, do you find Clinton's ban on human cloning somewhat silly?
Do you think of a cloned child as any different than any other child?"

Go ahead, ask me the easy ones that won't get me into trouble....

I think people are overly-frightened by the idea. They have an
exaggerated idea of what it means. You can clone me (a scary thought on
its own terms, but that's a different discussion) to your heart's
content...but the fact is, though the genetic makeup is the same, the
environmental, social and psychological conditions that made me what I am
(insert joke here) will not be present for the new kid, and you'll get a
VERY different adult.

In a sense, there's been 50% cloning going on throughout history; it goes
on every day, every 30 seconds: a child is conceived using DNA templates
from two people, the parents. Now we're talking about DNA templates from
one person.

Should caution be used? Absolutely. A total ban on research? How can we
make proper ethical decisions without the most thorough information we can
get our hands on? "No, let's not find out what's really involved until
*after* we make our decision." This is like having a trial after the jury
has rendered a verdict.

Because that technology has potential uses *outside* strict cloning. If a
father is infertile, could you use the cloning techniques to separate out
his DNA and use it to fertilize his wife's eggs? There are many other
possible uses for this technology; to throw the baby out with the DNA
seems to me a poor idea.




jms