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2003
consumerism
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human cloning
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Photo
courtesy of the New York Times.
Pasadena Oct 2004: Humans By Design -Technology Perfecting Humanity
This fight took
place at the annual IDSA National Conference, and was scheduled as a main
event drawing a crowd of about 200 startled onlookers. Bradford McKee
of the New York Times printed a half-page article on the Fight entitled
"In
This Ring, A Designer Slugfest":
"No jaws were broken, no eyes blackened,
but at the annual gathering of the IDSA here last week... a few stridently
held ideas about the farming of human genes took a beating. As did everyone's
eardrums."
Every Fight Club meeting to date has experimented with a new element in
the format; this time the Fighters had microphones, and in a raised platform
rather than the usual chalk circle. The mics gave them an acoustic dominance
over the shouts of the crowd and the platform made gave it a podium-like
effect, so the arguments were directed a lot at the crowd rather than
each other.
The fighters Lee Silver and Phil Bereano were world-class debaters who
have publicity clashed in the past, and made this a loud and ferocious
fight with strong and controversial arguments on both sides. "It
was really compelling" said Michelle Berryman when asked
by the New York Times. "It polarized people."
Lee Silver, PhD: Biologist and author, and perhaps the foremost spokesperson in support of human cloning and biotechnology. Dr. Silver is a Professor at Princeton University in the Departments of Molecular Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Program in Neuroscience.
https://web.princeton.edu/sites/lsilver/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4616347/
"Why is everybody so worried about cloning, which won’t be used by large numbers of people? I see it being used by prospective parents who want a child and can’t have one through other means. ...Infertile people are really the people who want to use this technology to have a child who has their own genes. Even if all cloning’s kinks were worked out, you would wind up with a baby who had all the same genetic material as the parent but who wasn’t an identical clone in the popular sense of the word. The child would grow up, as all children do, unpredictably. You aren’t going to be able to bring back anybody with this technology."
Phil Bereano, J.D., is a professor in the College of Engineering, Department of Technical Communication, University of Washington, Seattle. For over 30 years he has worked on issues regarding technologies and public policies. He chairs the national Committee on Databases and Civil Liberties of the American Civil Liberties Union, and is a cofounder of the Council for Responsible Genetics. He participated in the development of the UN Cartagena Biosafety protocol. http://www.uwtc.washington.edu/people/faculty/bereano. http://www.actionbioscience.org/genomic/bereano.html.
"Prof. Lee Silver calls cloning an advance,
ignoring the negative ethical and social consequences. He doesn’t
seem to be at all concerned that the science will be developed solely
in the service of the well-to-do"..
There's a mass of
fascinating information on the web, take a browse through these:
Pro:
The UCLA's website offers a lot of information about the issues involved
in Genetic Engineering, but is clearly in favor of genetic engineering:
http://research.arc2.ucla.edu/pmts/Germline/Inevitability/evframes.htm
http://www.humancloning.org/myths.php
http://www.clonaid.com/news.php
Claims that a human has been cloned: http://www.clonerights.com/history_of_the_movement.htm
A statement from
the National Committee for Human Life Ammendment: http://www.nchla.org/issues.asp?ID=7
http://www.humancloning.org/
Contra:
an article about genetically manipulated athletes:
www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006D86E.htm
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_206838.html
http://www.cloninginformation.org/
http://www.umc.org/umns/backgrounders.asp?ptid=&story={3895555B-9F1E-4A3E-9766-870CDCC4DD3B}&mid=905
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jones/tmp352/projects98/group1/ethic.htm
List of reasons against cloning: http://www.globalchange.com/noclones.htm
Twenty one argumants against Huan Cloning: http://www.genesage.com/professionals/geneletter/archives/twentyonearguments.html
Catholic Bisops statement: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/03doerflinger.htm
l
Neutral:
good explanation and pros and contra arguments in full detail: http://zygote.swarthmore.edu/gene7.html
The Human Genome website also gives a good overview of the issues:
www.genome.gov/10004764
This page lists the pro's and con's in separate columns -another good overview
www.ifgene.org/germline.htm
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/rt-shcl.htm
http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/Hot/bioethics/clone.htm
A debate with Lee Silver:
http://www.contextmag.com/setFrameRedirect.asp?src=/archives/200204/TheLastWord.asp
Global Policies: http://www.glphr.org/genetic/genetic.htm
Ethical Issues: http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/Fall97Report/cloning.htm
Links
to mixed articles: http://www.gyre.org/news/related/Cloning/Against+Human+Cloning
Article about the issues and features Lee Silver: http://ngin.tripod.com/351.htm
Future
prediction: http://www.nickbostrom.com/views/cloning.html
"To clone or not to clone": http://thefarnsworths.com/science/cloning.htm