From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@ocean.com.au)
Date: Tue Dec 31 2002 - 18:04:36 MST
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> > (Brett Paatsch <paatschb@ocean.com.au>):
> > In a hypothetical world, otherwise like this one, where a
> > clone's chances of surviving through to "birth" and being
> > "healthy" are just as good as that of the average non-clone,
> > what new classes of threat or abuse or new sources of
> > concern do people imagine would arise?
>
> The only semi-legitimate concern I can think of is that it
> adds less diversity to the gene pool than traditional breeding,
> and so might allow infectious diseases to out-evolve us. But
> it would have to become a /very/ common means of reproduction
> for that to have any major effect.
I think your second sentence nails that concern almost immediately.
The risks of not having genetic diversity are pretty well known.
There were cultural taboos against incest well before genetics were
well understood. I think these would nicely kick in and act as a
counterweight if necessary. Especially with a very little education .
Also I don't think many people would opt for reproductive cloning
other than the rare "parent" who is unlikely to opt for
a whole bunch of "Daryls" or "Daves" that are too much alike.
(Interestingly "armies" of Daryls or Daves - a concern often voiced
in the popular media would be particularly susceptible to custom
made microbes - another reason why that would be a dumb/inefficient
option for a bad guy dictator).
The fight between viruses and bacteria and humans is an old one.
Up until relatively recently say the time of Pasteur and Koch and
the "germ theory", we were fighting (like other host animals) in the
dark and *our* genetic diversity was *our* best group defence.
Increasing we are fighting in the light. Sure microbes that see
humans as their natural habitat and have a exceptional capacity
to evolve are giving us some challenges in the areas of antibiotics
etc, but we are not fighting blind anymore we understand the
genetic mechanisms.
The problem of antibiotic resistant strains of microbe arises with
or without clones. Our best *general* weapon against the brute
force threat of the microbes (with their exception power to throw
up variation and then reproduce quickly) is our understanding of
microbe genetics.
Understanding human genetics and immunity better helps too.
Today it is this understanding not simply randomly dispersing our
genes in many baskets that gives us the chance to come up with
*specific* weapons (antibiotics and vaccines) much more quickly
than previously.
And whilst microbes can move fast between countries in hosts
on planes. We can send media warnings faster. As always, if they
work too well and kill to quickly they wipe out their means of
spreading. If they work slowly but surely (a more effective
approach) we now have far better means of detecting them lurking
(HIV and HepC like) and we have better lead times for working out responses.
Brett
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