Human Cloning Is Closer Than You Think
"People who want to clone their DNA so they can have a Mini-Me running around need to have their head examined." CHERYL ROTH Sugar Grove, Ill.
Cloning humans is incredibly dangerous [SOCIETY, Feb. 19]. Accepting our mortality and that of the ones we love is part of nature. How much more money are we going to invest in procedures that claim to keep us young? We are not talking about products here but about human lives! Those who desperately want a baby and can't have one ought to accept reality. There are millions of children who are in search of a home. LYA R. BONE New York City
When in vitro fertilization, sperm banks and surrogate motherhood first arrived on the scene, they all raised ethical questions. And while not everyone is satisfied with the answers, these methods for combatting infertility are being used widely today. Cloning is destined to become just another reproductive technique. Parents of clones will learn the same timeless lesson other parents have learned: each child is an individual. LYNNE LYBERGER Livermore, Calif.
I am the mother of a five-year-old who died from leukemia. A clone of my son created from a lock of his hair would never make it possible for me to forget that he is gone forever. STEPHANIE WOLF Memphis, Tenn.
And at what point in the cloning process does the human soul get implanted by the scientists? KAREN SLYMAN Exton, Pa.
Rather than asking what bad may come from cloning and genetic engineering, people should understand the breakthroughs that may result from them. Those suffering from illnesses might be cured. Critics should not make moral judgments in God's name. They ought to place themselves in the position of those who could benefit from new genetic procedures. It is immoral not to do anything to help if you know how to do it. PETTER SUND Turku, Finland
The notion that people could be cloned smacks of social engineering of a catastrophic dimension, the results of which can only further erode humanity. DWIGHT MESSNER Louisville, Ky.
Where is Mary Shelley when we need her? Please, somebody, let the cloning of humans be only the stuff of a gothic novel--today's tale of Frankenstein's monster--instead of the unspeakably true horror story you published. DONALD T. SANDERS Madison, Conn.
Pandora's box is never opened more profoundly than when a human being is created, regardless of the manner or means. In giving life to a child, either through old-fashioned sexual intercourse or with help from the modern miracles of science, every parent takes a turn at playing God. THOMAS EARL PRYOR Traverse City, Mich.
Those who are thinking about cloning themselves should heed the pronouncement of frustrated mothers: "May your children be just like you." MICHAEL SULLIVAN Essex Junction, Vt.
I recognize the potential benefits of cloning but am uneasy about its possible repercussions. What scares me the most is that cloning of humans and babies made to order will one day become commonplace. As long as the debate over cloning continues, it means we recognize the complex ethical issues involved. It's only when the debate stops, when cloning and all the technologies associated with it are accepted as unremarkable facts of life, that we are in trouble. ERIN DURKIN Boston