From: Gregory Neophile (neophile@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Mar 07 1997 - 18:01:39 MST
Hal Finney said:
The main issue which I find disturbing in cloning and similar proposals
is, what about the children produced? Who defends their interests,
and to what extent should I condone someone performing
experiments which may lead to children who suffer from brain
damage or deformities?
I think this is a reasonable concern, but note that each act of
"natural conception" is also an "experiment" and the rate of
"natural" birth defects is significant. One could screen parents to
look for whether double recessive genes might appear thru
recombination but this is not commonly done. In fact, I saw a
married couple on tv that had children even though they knew there
was a one quarter chance each child would have cystic
fibrosis. Note, here, I am not arguing about whether screening
should or should not be done. I mention this example to illustrate
the fact that current default ethical systems do not prevent people
from creating progeny even when the danger of birth defects is high.
Neophile
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