The fundamentalists worry about the facile taking of life. If we take the life of a fetus can't we also take the life all of a patient with Alzheimer's? Can we clone without destruction?
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has a surprising answer. Founded by a reformed fundamentalist, Michael West, the Massachusetts company is devoted to cloning .. dogs, tissues, maybe people Their idea? Instead of using an entire embryo, West’s employees biopsy the original ball of cells, leaving enough cells to go onto make a viable embryo. The biopsy can then be grown to body parts.
Beware of fundamentalists who switch sides. The atomic bomb, like Hitler’s rockets, was built by passionate believers, people convinced of their good intentions We all know the result of such scientific certainty. Oppenheimer led the effort of American physicists leading to Hiroshima and a life time of apologies.
My issues with cloning are not solved by West’s trick. We should worry about the power science can give to the convinced. Wasn’t it North Korea that cloned its great leader back in the 21st century? Look where that led us? How did you react to the news that Bill Gates’ foundation had provided its Founder with cloned organs letting Mr. Gates survive to today’s versions 1.11 and 1.21. Mr. Gates, we all know and love, but the evil done by the Dear Leader is too frightful to imagine. Oh well, we all do love having Michael Jordans on every NBA team.
There is more to look forward to. Imagine an endless succession of Queen Elizabeths. QE II 1.0, 1.01, 1.02, …. Charley stays prince forever! Or we could clone the Pope! Would an immortal series of Pope clones solve the dilemma of Papal infallibility?
The unfortunate truth is that the fundamentalists have led us all to misplace the debate. Disposing of a conceptus is something women do normally ... only 1/4 of all embryoes survives through the first trimester. If the religious are so righteous they should fund drug research into saving this massive loss of lives. I am far more concerned with a modern Werner von Braun misusing the biology than I am about Michael West's solution of an insignificant ethical dilemma.
See http://slate.msn.com/id/2128306/nav/tap2/
No comments:
Post a Comment