From: hal@finney.org
Date: Mon Sep 18 2000 - 09:20:23 MDT
> From: "John M Grigg" <starman125@lycos.com>
>
> >I look forward to the day when humanity is not faced with this issue. And
> >that time is not too far off from now.
>
> How do you envision this abortion problem going away? The only thing I can
> imagine is universal birth control that is 100% effective.
Yes, I'm sure that is what John had in mind.
However even if future technology gives us this degree of reproductive
control, it will raise many new issues.
We talk about father's rights, but what happens when anyone can take
microscopic samples from anywhere you've been and either create a clone,
or use them to create a baby for which you are the biological parent?
Should this be illegal, that is, should society try to stop people from
doing this without the consent of the donor? (David Zindell in his
Neverness series called this crime "slelling".) Celebrities could find
themselves being unwillingly cloned into thousands of babies.
And then, there might be cases where consent is difficult to prove.
Two people have sex, and the man has arranged to be sterile, but the
woman wants his baby and has easy access to his DNA. The man's efforts
to control his reproduction could easily be thwarted.
These situations remind us that we are fundamentally information beings.
It is the nature of information to be copied, which conflicts with our
ideas about the uniqueness of each individual. The good thing about
these scenarios is that the babies are wanted, so presumably there will
be loving parents to raise them.
Hal
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