From: Damien Broderick (thespike@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Dec 29 2002 - 16:38:27 MST
Lee Corbin postulates:
> In A, cloning attempts are permitted only on animals, until
> such time as 100% of cloning attempts result in perfectly
> normal animals. Only then will cloning be allowed for
> humans.
>
> In B, cloning of human beings is also permitted, but abortions
> of faulty humans are allowed up to the end of the second
> trimester. While quite a number of people have been successfully
> cloned, for each success approximately ten abortions take place.
The assumption here in B is that pre-trimester assays will provide perfect
predictions of the health of the baby-to-be. That is not at all evident,
since perhaps some of the less obvious errors (maternal/paternal imprinting
etc) mightn't be manifest until well after birth.
Suppose, then that the B equation is made more realistic (perhaps): for each
success approximately ten abortions take place plus another two or five or
eight children develop to maturity botched in some markedly disagreeable
way.
Damien Broderick
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