[OT] Claim of first clone birth

[Andrew D. Gable]

I'm thrilled by this news. Don't care if it's a hoax or not. Love that the baby's name is Eve.

Just so she's not like the Eve-6 on X-FILES, eh? Given the arguments here, I think it's most likely she will.

 

[Teneb]

Cloning a highly complex multicellular organism, such as a human being, is an extremely difficult endeavor right now

Right, this is another important distinction right up there with the "aged DNA" point made several times earlier. Another thing we need to remember is that everyone undergoes mutations in their DNA, and my mutations are mutually exclusive, even from my clone. I may have the "big bad anti-cancer gene (tm)" but with a single mutation, my clone could lose that gene and develop leukemia. There goes my organ farm!

The one point that really irritates me is that many media people always trot out the "what if we cloned Hitler" thing, totally ignoring things like, oh I don't know....upbringing. Gotta love media sensationalism. Honestly, I'm rather surprised by how tame the media coverage has been (in comparison to past episodes).

For the record, I oppose human cloning, but fully support stem cell research for new organs/cancer research/et al.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Y'know, I wish the flying car thing had come about before all this. That would've been much more fun.

 

[Mark]

Y'know, I wish the flying car thing had come about before all this. That would've been much more fun.

The flying car would be quickly supplanted due to the widespread use of personal jet packs...

 

[mmu1]

Y'know, I wish the flying car thing had come about before all this. That would've been much more fun.

Eh... Up here, we've had enough of things flying into buildings, thank you very much.

 

[Lizard]

Yeah, I think a lot of people get that, more than you're giving credit for. The implications of cloning - covered for decades and decades in science fiction - have a sinister connotation that can't be glossed over. That is, since organs from a clone would be a genetic match, and therefore less likely to be rejected if transplanted, will there be extremely wealthy people who would be willing to take the long-term approach and have clones made of themselves which they can later harvest for organs?

I suspect it will be far simple to just grow the organs. I don't see that technology as too far off. Even if it's twenty years off, it will take just as long to grow a full-sized clone for transplant purposes -- and I doubt that organ growing is two decades off. I'd say closer to 1.

There was a movie on this topic made in the early 70s. It ended up on MST3K, where it deserved to be. (Parts:The Clonus Horror.)

 

[WayneLigon]

I don't consider myself religious or rightous but this is W-R-O-N-G. I thought there were international laws against this kind of crap. There is a difference between Role-playing a gawd and trying to be one.

Nope, nothing wrong with it. No, there aren't, and no, there isn't.

 

[MythandLore]

Food for thought.

Mice, men share 99 percent of genes
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/12/04/coolsc.coolsc.mousegenome/

PIGS FOR TRANSPLANTS
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/gene_safari/pharm/xeno.shtml

Organ Transplants from Animals: Examining the Possibilities
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/596_xeno.html

Dolly Cloners Abandon GE Organ Transplant Research Fearing Deadly Viruses
http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/pigtransp.cfm

Xenotransplantation: benefits and ethics
http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/soundofsci/xeno.html

 

[I'm A Banana]

My main beef has to do with the yobbos shouting "THIS SHOULD BE OUTLAWED, AND THIS PROVES IT!"

I don't really think it's morally right to do right now...but pushing it to unregulated sectors isn't going to stop it from happening -- it's just going to push it to the outskirts, perhaps even more...*shudder*

I mean, I'm all for flying cars, but I wouldn't want the people making them to be, say, radical Islamic fundamentalists who hate the US, just because the US had a problem with some religious groups who thought that flying was an attempt to challenge God in his heavenly authority, and so didn't access or know about the technology of flying cars...

Plus, there's the whole argument of how do you know this is morally wrong? There isn't exactly a bible verse or a saying by St. Cleetus that you can turn to for advice on 'thou shal or shal not clone.' About the only authority that has spoken is some Vatican yobbo who's main reason is that 'humans are playing God with technology.' Well, hell, the Amish have been saying that since the 1600's, so why was the line drawn here and not at the nuclear bomb?

Though I guess this kind of talk is more appropriate for Nutkinland than here. Still, though...glad I got it off my chest...

Now to go write some inspired drama about what this Eve's teenage years of self-discovery will be like....hehe. Yipes.

 

[Airwolf]

[RANT]
Now this really ticks me off!! They pushed back the DNA testing because some dumb lawyer went and asked that Eve be assigned a legal guardian by the state of Florida.

"These tests have not been carried out. We have had to push them back," Boisselier said, saying the baby's parents felt under pressure after a Florida lawyer this week asked a state court to appoint a legal guardian for the baby.

I am beginning to think there should be laws against lawyers.

Now there is a possibility that the entire thing is a hoax and the lawyer works for Clonaid and this was done on purpose, but I don't think so.

Is there any worse thing than the government being in charge of a child? As I recall Florida is 'missing' about 100 children as it is.

This is a child not a monster that needs to be caged or monitored every second of the day. Maybe the court could stick Bernard Siegel (the lawyer) with a legal guardian and see how he likes it. The CNN article is here.
[/RANT]