Human Cloning 1
Human CloningIn his column, A. Arif Husain ‘97 [”Critics of Cloning Can’t Accept Change,” March 21] argues that President Clinton’s decision to ban research on human cloning is a case of uninformed governmental meddling and obstruction of scientific research. Husain believes that fears of human cloning are founded in ignorance and an archaic fear of new developments in science. Upon more careful evaluation of the issue, however, a different picture emerges.
Husain suggests that selectively mating two animals is no worse than selectively cloning one of them. The issue at hand concerns not animal cloning but people cloning. Equating selective mating and cloning on a moral level may or may not be valid, but it is a moot point because selectively breeding humans is an idea that repulses most people.
Arguing for the potential positive benefits of human cloning, Husain writes, “Cloning may allow us to weed out genetic disease, enhance desirable traits, even deliver made-to-order progeny.” Some of these ideas are precisely what bother many people. During World War II, the Nazis implemented a...
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