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Human Cloning Research is Here
by H. David Blalock
Somewhere, in an unknown Mediterranean country, three scientists, noted and honored men and women of the human community, are working to produce human clones. It is their intent to improve the human specie, to increase human effectiveness, to create a perfect race. They believe they are only months away from success.
And they are being resisted by nearly every government in the world.
The plot for a nasty science-fiction novel? No. This is real, and it is now.
The three doctors are American infertility specialist Panayiotis Zavos, Italian obstetrician Severino Antinori, and biochemist Dr. Brigitte Boisselier. Barred from Italy and Spain, human cloning research has gone underground. Although South Korean scientists maintain they succeeded in creating a human embryo, which was shortly thereafter destroyed, few other scientists are braving the intricate ethical and moral problems inherent in this research.
Dr. Zavos has declared that he is "one and a half to two years" away from cloning a complete human being. He expects his research to produce significant progress toward that goal by October 2001. In his words: "We are determined to do it right or we will not do it at all."
Dr. Boisselier is a member of the Raelians, a group that believes that humans were created by cloning from an alien race and maintain that cloning is the key to eternal life. "I do believe that it's a fundamental right to reproduce the way you want," she told the press recently. "If you want to reproduce by mixing your genes with someone else's you have the right. If you want to reproduce yourself by cloning your genes you have the right."
In June 2001, Canada hosted a summit of "G8" science ministers (Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Britain, and Russia), where human cloning was the major concern. In the words of Canadian Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development, Gilbert Normand, these talks led "to a consensus on the ban on human cloning and the rejection of intellectual property rights on the human genome, a genetic map and database of the human species."
What these ministers determined in June typifies the attitude and nascent laws of the major countries of the world. The United States currently has legislation in the Senate concerning a comprehensive ban on all human cloning. The purpose of this legislation is not to prevent a scientific disaster but to address a moral issue that becomes more political by the moment.
But it could also spell disaster for serious scientific endeavours in the improvement and salvation of the human species at large.
In a global scope, the human race is dying. Disease, famine, and war are sufficient in many areas to accomplish this, but in the developed countries it requires something more, something far less overt.
Political genocide is taking its toll on the best minds in America, Britain, Asia, and Africa. The increasing influence of socialism in Europe and America is stifling the very factors that can improve the human condition: innovation and inspiration. As governments become more intrusive, as private rights are further infringed with restrictions on free speech and thought, mankind slips closer to the eventual abyss.
Is the blocking of research in America on human cloning part of this? Perhaps. The ethical questions involved in cloning human beings is an issue we must all address, and quickly. The technology will not wait on our indecision. If the scientists who are dedicated to the accomplishment of this technology are forced to flee underground, that is where the technology will be nurtured and eventually spring from.
Somewhere down the road, factions and sects whose main thrust is dominance on a world-wide basis will use this technology to create a race of soldiers, automatons who will die for them and who can be replaced cheaply and quickly.
Sound fantastic? Now, perhaps. But five, ten years down the road? Who knows what advances can be accomplished when the scientist is given unlimited resources and no accountability?
It is imperative that, if human cloning research is going to occur, and it will whether the governments of the world want it to or not, such research be closely monitored, heavily guarded, and continually supervised without prejudice. Science in and of itself is not evil, but ignorance combined with science is disastrous. Greed combined with science is nearly always lethal.
For further reading:
http://www.reason.com/biclone.html
http://cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/09/clone/index.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wdiv/20010522/lo/809886_1.html
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning/cloning.jsp?id=ns9999904
http://genomics.phrma.org/cloning.html
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/yahoo/orl-clone080801.story?coll=orl%2Dhome%2Dheadlines
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