L. Moran, New Zealand

Michel, Canberra, Australia

Anuj Rikhye, Toronto, Canada

The question is wrong. Human history has shown that once a technology is developed, it will be used. Our energies should go into managing cloning, not banning it.

For all the moralistic bluster about human cloning, has anyone really considered what the legal status of the resulrtant children would be? If a person is a clone, will they be afforded full human rights? This is surely a dichotomy. If you give them human rights, then you tacitly condone the means by which they were conceived. If you withhold such rights, then you are saying that not all human are created equal, and you might as well scrap human rights altogether.

I think human cloning is great. Glad science beat bad legislature. Genetic Research will allow us to save our own lives, and increase our own potential as human beings. Life will be longer, and happier. Also it opens many doors for more creative and imaginative thinking. No knowledge is inherently bad. Cloning is no more evil then a copper vein in a mine. It waits to be discovered and used by someone for better or for worse.
Matt Joyce, United States

My main objection to cloning is not the morality issue but that cloning is idiotic. The reason we have thrived as a species is that sexual reproduction is a more successful strategy than asexual reproduction because it mixes and matches genes. Cloning is voluntary asexual reproduction. In cloning, reproductively we're turning ourselves into amoeba. I don't think we'll ever have enough knowledge to consciously guide human development in the right direction. Even worse, the idea of cloning is built on a myth. Given that we are formed by both nature and nurture, another person with your genes is going to be you. It's an insane alliance of vanity, egoism and science.
Gary Pollard, Hong Kong

Just because we can doesn't mean we should. Look at the atomic bomb. Technology is great, but at what cost? We are eventually going to be the death of ourselves. And it will all be because we didn't know when to say no. I am all for medical innovations, and progress, but cloning humans, is just going too far.
TH, United States

Of course one should understand those parents who have lost their children and want them back. But the problem is that it cannot clone an identical child. I don't mean the appearance, but the character and the inner world of the child that they have lost.
Ann, Moscow, Russia

Scientist shouldn't even think of cloning human beings, they should concentrate more on improving human lives not creating human beings. This could lead to destruction.
Etim, Calabar, Nigeria

Troubling as cloning may be, it is only a technology. Cloning has the potential to vastly improve the quality of life for many people. Religion and Politics should keep their hands off of science.
James J., Galt's Gulch, Bermuda

There is a big difference between therapeutic cloning and reproductive. The former could save lives, the latter should not be permitted. Lilliam H., Geneva, Switzerland

We should stop getting too exercised on this issue. The first basis of any credible claim is that it should be testable. Obviously, the group that claimed to have cloned babies do not want to be subjected to independent verification. If they were so concerned about the privacy of the families involved why did they even announce the incident to the press? They could have written a paper in a peer reviewed journal.
SD, USA

How will society respond to adult cloned individuals, particularly if their numbers become plentiful? Will they be regarded by the 'man in the street' as human beings... or a lesser form? Throughout our history peoples branded by others as non-human and sub-human have faced severe discrimination, enslavement, and even extermination. No-one knows the roads which the future will take, but I fear that we are paving a path that may lead to a regrettable destination.
Lesley M, Port of Spain, Trinidad, WI

Many people say that cloning is UNETHICAL. Who defines what is ethical? Test tube babies were unethical a few decades ago when the method was discovered and now it's an everyday routine process.
Nestor Phoenix, London

Cloning is insane. Our Earth is already overpopulated, why should anyone wish to make it more so? There is no valid reason humans should be cloned. A better use for cloning would be to save endangered species and such.
Jessi, Denver, USA

We should outlaw religion, not cloning. Consider how much more peaceful, understanding, wise and spiritually enlightened the human race would be if this horrible scourge could be eliminated. Poverty, injustice and war would be less serious, workable problems. We could even have a reasonable discussion about science and cloning.
Greg, Paterson USA

Before any decision is made, we really ought to wait until the media circus is over. Right now, it's just mob rule. An angry and confused mob exists only on emotion, with no shred of rational thought.
Eric, USA

Come on, if there are people bent on doing something, they will be doing it no matter what. The Prohibition era in the US was one clear example. If you want to control something, put it under limits tight enough to prevent the most dangerous abuses, but not too tight to force someone doing it illegally.
Anonymous, USA

The public is not enlightened enough to make a decision on this topic. Notions based on fictional stories of cloning have biased the public into thinking it is unethical and will be the demise of the human race. Unenlightened public opinion playing into major scientific decisions is parallel to the Salem witch trials. The Raelians made the same claim in 1978! Now they are withholding their "proof", saying that they are protecting the child and parents. They just want the attention from stirring up controversy.
David, Dallas, USA

What about the health of cloned babies? I heard that Dolly the Sheep is not very healthy when compared to normal sheep.
Feisal Amour, Toronto, Canada

The world's reaction to human cloning is reminiscent of the 19th century reaction to Darwin's theory of evolution. Whenever there is a major scientific breakthrough that defies established views an angry reaction of this magnitude is expected. Scientific developments must be allowed to take place - otherwise we would still be in the middle ages.
Nabil, Windsor, Canada

I find the idea that this cult has succeeded in cloning a human ridiculous. Are we to believe that they had the accepted number of failed clones before this one? Where are all the other women whose implanted clones did not make it?
Kevin Kirby, San Francisco, US

I agree with cloning of tissues to recreate organs and help repair tissue in other bodies. I agree with cloning if its purpose is to combat and perhaps eradicate disease. But what are the benefits of cloning an entire human? What can be gained?
Aaron Pendlebury, Northampton England

Allowing the cloning of an entire human body is a slippery slope. Once the precedent is set, and cloning is allowed to continue, then more insidious applications, such as the attempt to create super soldiers or a pure race, is only a matter of time. Will my descendants have to be worried about being a certain percent "organic"?
Gerald, Chicago, USA

While I'm not a Christian fundamentalist, it would shock me if God did not punish us in some way for trying to be Him. More importantly, however, is the fact that there is too much room for abuse.
Andrew Smith, Memphis, TN, USA

I don't understand what the big deal is about cloning... Who cares if someone clones themselves (or someone else)??? It's expensive and even a clone is not an "exact" copy of someone else, and even if they were - what's the problem?
Joel Baumbaugh, San Diego, CA, USA

If cloning is godless than there is obviously life without god, which finally once and for all makes god useless. No wonder so many religious fanatics are all worried about this turn of events. I am all for cloning, lets place humanity away from the pre-historical beliefs of current religions and join the 21st century.
Carmen Mattioli, Lisbon, Portugal

From reading these comments it is quite obvious that a lot of people don't know much about cloning. Improving species is part of evolution and cloning will ultimately improve the species and eradicate some diseases. It is a natural process that is now in the hand of humans. So if we like it or not, it is going to be used and it is going to improve the species. One could argue that self-improvement is just another step in evolution. We have already taken our evolutionary faith in our own hand in many different fields and cloning is just another means.
Dirk Vandenheuvel, Belgium

12. Discussion.

1. Choose the points of view that are close to your opinion. Comment on them and explain your position.

2. Generalize the main pros and cons which were expressed by the people.

3. Which other pros and cons of cloning could you add?

4. What is your attitude to the proposition that by 2250 married couples will be able to customize the genes that will underlie their baby’s behaviour and personality?

13. Translate using the words given below.

1. Среди различных возможностей применения биотехнологии именно клонирование вызывает полемику в моральном и этическом аспектах.

2. Бесполое размножение, известное тысячелетия в плане развития растениеводства, является скользкой дорожкой, предоставляющий большой простор для злоупотреблений, если говорить о клонировании животных и человека.

3. Без строгого контроля и продуманной законодательной базы мы можем зайти слишком далеко, прокладывая дорогу к тому пункту назначения, о котором мы будем сожалеть.

4. Те, кто сейчас выступает против биотехнологии, должны будут смириться с проведением дальнейших исследований.

5. Хотя генетическая инженерия даёт возможность искоренять генетические и врождённые дефекты, биологически разлагать вредные отходы, увеличивать урожайность зерновых, некоторые сферы её применения могут оказаться весьма коварными.

6. Те, кто хочет себя увековечить с помощью клонирования, серьёзно ошибаются, считая, что клон – это идентичная копия «родителя».

7. Любой прорыв в науке, попирающий устоявшиеся взгляды, нарывается на стойкое сопротивление. Нужно подождать, пока шумиха в СМИ утихнет, так как в доводах разъярённой толпы обычно не бывает ни доли разумной мысли.

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