SCC/BIO Re: George Will Joins The Bioludites

From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue Jan 23 2001 - 08:24:49 MST


From: Samantha Atkins <samantha@objectent.com>
 
>What about cloning for body part replacements?

I think this is a perfectly good use of cloning tech, as long as we
are talking about individual parts or organs.

>Is all you are simply a "phenotype"?

No.

>Do you believe that you have the right to keep others from
>extending their lives by any and all means that do not violate the
>rights of others?

No, But a clone is an individual, and therefore has rights
independant of the "wishs" of the person who created it.

>Is it your business to decide whether or not this or
>that individual or all such individuals 'deserve' to live longer
>or to create more copies of themselves by means of sex (partial
>copies) or cloning (total genetic copies)? No? Then I do not
>understand the above statement. 'Merit it' according to whom?

As previously stated I have no problem with the use of cloning
technology to create new body parts or organs.

However cloning a whole individual is not merely making a copy of
oneself but the creation of an entirely new individual who merely
has most of the genetic material of the original. A clone of an
individual is a seperate individual, not merely a copy.

>Continued life is its own merit.

I could not possibly agree more.

>Now, if you mean simply making copies of myself, I would say that
>too could have merit if those copies can support themselves
>productively.

As I stated, a clone of an individual is a new individual, not
merely a copy of the original. All individuals have independant
rights.

>Who would decide who should be cloned or not? Why not simply let
>the market decide?

There is a great deal more to life and society than the market.
This is not simply an economic question.

>> Deliberate cloning is low breed stuff, or to put it in an easily
>> spreadable meme:
>>
>> "cloning is for livestock."

>You are welcome to your opinion, of course, just as long as you
>don't wish to see it enforced as more than that.

I will continue to support the rights of individuals, and their
opinions.

Brian

Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W



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