Re: Cloning is Here

From: Michelle Welcks (daala@mindspring.com)
Date: Sun Feb 23 1997 - 14:41:50 MST


Hal Finney wrote:

> There are serious problems raised as well. Let us suppose that it
> becomes relatively common for people to choose to give birth to a
> clone of an existing person rather than a new individual with randomly
> chosen genetics. You can get a sure thing rather than a crap shoot.
> Of course the sure thing may lack any of the parents' genes, but the
> experience of people who adopt children suggests that this may not be
> much of a barrier. You can have a child who is virtually guaranteed to
> be a genius, or have marvelous atheletic or musical talent, or to be a
> physical beauty, simply by cloning an adult with these characteristics.

This may be assuming genetic factors play a much-much larger role than
environmental factors. I might suggest that given the opportunity to
develop as freely as possible (given the circumstances), a clone may
develop along a completely different path than its predecessor. In
fact, it may develop along a completely different path if others try to
mold it; I.e. it will never have the same experiences as its former.

Of course, we have now have the key to determining which of these
arguments is correct. . .

-- 
Michelle Welcks
daala@mindspring.com
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