quotations about cloning
No doubt the person whose experimental skill will eventually bring forth a clonal baby will be given wide notoriety. But the child who grows up knowing that the world wants another Picasso may view his creator in a different light.
JAMES WATSON
Moving toward the Clonal Man
Why would you clone people when you can go to bed with them and make a baby? C'mon, it's stupid.
RAY BRADBURY
Salon Magazine, Aug. 29, 2001
The first obstacle to cloning your dog is that $100,000 cost. The second is getting the right kind of cells.
DRAKE BAER
"This Korean lab has nearly perfected dog cloning, and that's just the start", Tech Insider, September 8, 2015
Anybody who objects to cloning on principle has to answer to all the identical twins in the world who might be insulted by the thought that there is something offensive about their very existence. Clones are simply identical twins.
RICHARD DAWKINS
BBC interview, Jan. 31, 1999
Some opponents might admit that human clones are not copies lacking in individuality or autonomy. Because other people will think of them that way, however, human clones will suffer psychological damage. Thus, cloning must be banned lest a bigoted public inflict psychological pain and suffering upon children who would be better off nonexistent.
KERRY LYNN MACINTOSH
Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law
The idea that cloning offends God is one of the most commonly asserted arguments in the cloning debate.... It is impossible to know whether human reproductive cloning does, in fact, offend God. For one thing, there is no scientific proof that God exists.
KERRY LYNN MACINTOSH
Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law
Specially created human clones will have free will. Clones are simply people made in a never before seen way. But they are still people who will grow and develop. Bet on this--teenage human clones will not want to do or be what their parents wish they would any more than any other teenager born by more conventional means.
ARTHUR L. CAPLAN
prepared statement to the U.S. House of Representatives, May 18, 2001
For so many reasons, cloning is particularly susceptible to an intuitive approach to morality. There is so much metaphorical baggage. The whole idea seams wrong. It feels odd, even horrible, like something out of Frankenstein or Brave New World. So it must be wrong. But a visceral, instinctive shudder does not a moral argument make.
ARLENE JUDITH KLOTZKO
A Clone of Your Own?
The neat thing about cloning is that it's essentially like twinning, but with the two twins potentially living on disjointed timelines. Before Dolly the sheep and the advent of reproductive cloning, if you wanted to clone yourself you'd have to make that decision as an embryo, which is quite a big decision to make during your first trimester.
KYLE KURPINSKI & TERRY D. JOHNSON
How to Defeat Your Own Clone: And Other Tips for Surviving the Biotech Revolution
Anyone who has lost a beloved family pet understands the desire to somehow resurrect Fido or Mittens. How many replacement pets are there with names that end with "... the Second"? If a look-alike just won't do, cloning is an option. Cats are already being commercially cloned, though the fees are so gargantuan that a trip to the pound for something merely Fluffy-esque is by far more practical.
KYLE KURPINSKI & TERRY D. JOHNSON
How to Defeat Your Own Clone: And Other Tips for Surviving the Biotech Revolution
Further complicating matters is the question of whether cloning is a form of procreation, in either the biological or social sense. Although it surely is a form of making a new person, it is divorced from the sexual interaction that forms the emotional and social underpinnings of the experience that has led courts to claim a zone of privacy for American citizens. Thus, it is worth questioning whether the Supreme Court, were it to revisit those earlier cases in light of this new development, would premise its decisions on a right to make a new person or some other kind of right, such as the right to form intimate associations with others that may entail family formation.
R. ALTO CHARO
"Cloning and the Ethics of Public Policy"
In South Korea, a scientist considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of cloning has been sentenced to two years in prison. At least, they think it's him ...
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show, October 27, 2009
The dawn of the era of cloning is a little like splitting the atom, with enormous prospects for evil and enormous prospects for good.
GLENN BUCHER
attributed, Who's Afraid of Human Cloning?
God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.
MICHAEL CRICHTON & DAVID KOEPP
Jurassic Park
Some people, including at least one bishop who has spoken out on the subject, argue that clones will not "have souls" in any conventional sense. This, they argue, is because the embryo was conceived apart from "an act of love." This kind of reasoning, as sincere as it may be, is simply false. The emotional or affective state of the parents at the time of intercourse, prior to conception, has no direct bearing at all on the status of the embryo. If an ensouled human being only can be produced by two people who engage in the sexual act out of genuine love for one another, either there would be far fewer people on earth than there are now, or most of the world's population would be less than human because they possess no soul. Can we really hold that every child conceived by rape, incest, conjugal violence, or simple indifference is ipso facto deprived of a soul?
JOHN BRECK
God with Us: Critical Issues in Christian Life and Faith
Evidence that having the same genes does not make us the same person is all around us. Human clones already exist. They are Even identical twins who have all their genes in common. Twins also are usually raised in a relatively common environment by the same parents. Yet they are not identical copies of one another. They do not have the same thoughts and feelings and do not make the same life-choices and plans.
ARTHUR L. CAPLAN
prepared statement to the U.S. House of Representatives, May 18, 2001
Banning human cloning reflects our humanity. It is the right thing to do. Creating a child through this new method calls into question our most fundamental beliefs. It has the potential to threaten the sacred family bonds at the very core of our ideals and our society. At its worst, it could lead to misguided and malevolent attempts to select certain traits, even to create certain kind of children -- to make our children objects rather than cherished individuals.
BILL CLINTON
speech, June 9, 1997
President Bush and Bill Clinton both agree that cloning is morally wrong. Clinton said that he thinks humans should be made the old-fashioned way -- liquored up in a cheap hotel room.
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show
Cloning is arguably just another form of reproduction.
R. ALTO CHARO
"Cloning and the Ethics of Public Policy"
In recent weeks we learned that scientists have created human embryos in test tubes solely to experiment on them. This is deeply troubling, and a warning sign that should prompt all of us to think through these issues very carefully. We recoil at the idea of growing human beings for spare body parts or creating life for our convenience. I strongly oppose cloning. And while we must devote enormous energy to conquering disease, it is equally important that we pay attention to the moral concerns raised by the new frontier of human embryo stem cell research. Even the most noble ends do not justify any means.
GEORGE W. BUSH
radio address, Aug. 11, 2001