mr_bad_example: (lyle)
mr_bad_example ([personal profile] mr_bad_example) wrote2006-02-01 07:12 pm

The Island of Doctor Moron

"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research -- human cloning in all its forms -- creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos."

Wasn't somebody around to stop him from watching Mansquito before bedtime?

[identity profile] sxoidmal.livejournal.com 2006-02-02 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"The human genomic revolution has spawned an enormous amount of commentary about the possible perils of cloning and human genetic enhancement. I suspect that these are red herrings. When people realize that cloning is just forgoing a genetically mixed child for a twin of one parent, and is not the resurrection of the soul or a source of replacement organs, no one will want to do it. Likewise, when they realize that most genes have costs as well as benefits (they may raise a child's IQ but also predispose him to genetic disease), "designer babies" will lose whatever appeal they have. But the prospect of genetic tests of group differences in psychological traits is both more likely and more incendiary, and is one that the current intellectual community is ill-equipped to deal with."
http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_3.html#pinker