Decius wrote:
] Rattle wrote:
]
] ] On the other side, I really hope they are not full of shit,
] ] and have sucessfuly done it. I really like the idea of the
] ] history books reading that the first human clone was created
]
] ] by a nutty group of loons with dreams of immortality who
] ] thought that humans were genetically engineered by aliens.
]
] The problem is that this sends a really bad message about
] cloning. This baby, if real, is probably going to be fucked
] up. People looking for an excuse to ban genetic engineering
] (some of whom have reasons that are no more realistic then
] those of this Alien group) will hold up this poor child as an
] example of the bad things that happen when you screw with
] genetics.
]

] It is wrong to take poorly understood genetic techniques and
] apply them to a real human being. Its mad science, in the
] English sense. Its science that hurts people.
]
] We are increasingly in an environment where alarmist,
] reactionary thinking rules the day. Look at the Stock Market.
] Thats people betting AGAINST future growth in this country.
] Take Bill Joy, Fukuyama, and the DMCA, throw in 19 terrorists
] and this Alien group... shaken, not stirred. We may be heading
] toward a dark time, when certain kinds of thoughts,
] explorations, and considerations, are simply not allowed in
] the light of day, and must occur under a shrowd of secrecy
] regardless of how responsible they are. I kept hearing that
] theory from everyone at Defcon. I discounted it, but it is a
] distinct possibility.

THis child, if a true clone, most defininly will be fucked up. I have seen no publication in any of the science journals that have fixed the problems in cloning that cause the problems in Dolly. Dolly is aging at double the rate of a normal sheep because her telomeres are all fucked up. I highly doubt that these people have found a way to circumvent that without publishing it. It is my firm belief that this is not for real, but instead, some ploy to get funding thrown their way. Unfortunatly, all that will be thrown at them if this is true, is a bunch of new laws that restrict science even more. As I said in my other post, therapuetic cloning is important for many things such as tissue engineering and the like, but the laws most likely won't be specific enough to let research continue in that area. That means that more scientists will decide to leave the US to do research in less restrictive countries, which will weaken the science coming out of the US. Also, this will affect the way people react to news about genetic engineering, because they will watch these clones, and the second anything goes wrong, a finger will get pointed at genetic research.

RE: Cloned humans, aliens, and history books