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Britain Approves Human Cloning

Posted by timothy on from the please-be-careful-with-those-things dept.

albat0r writes: "The scientific community in Britain scored a huge victory on February 27th. A very influential and powerful committee in the House of Lords ruled that embryo cloning should be allowed to proceed-but only under strict conditions. The United States currently has ban on all forms of human cloning."

2 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm.. by olman · · Score: 3, Informative

    The link seems to be dysfunctional. In any case, if my memory serves, UK is approving cloning of stem cells, not human beings. Sensationalism? Slashdot? Surely not!

    That means, you can't have x copies of your favourite kid. On the other hand, you're allowed to use aborted foetuses to start new stem cell lines for research.. And probably transplants & stuff in future. I suppose if you feel abortion is wrong, no matter what, this won't make things any more reprehensible. As for me, I like the idea of "no waste". I just wonder why they don't recycle organs from executed prisoners..

  2. Criminal's organs by Caractacus+Potts · · Score: 3, Informative


    I just wonder why they don't recycle organs from executed prisoners..

    A couple sci-fi writers have addressed this issue. I can only think of Larry Niven offhand, and his novel "A Gift From Earth" or the Gil Hamilton stories. Hypothetically, if a society starts to use criminals for organs, blood, experiments, etc, AND people start living much longer lives because of transplants, corruption is inevitable. People with desirable cell types get framed, or if they're lucky, can just donate an organ for their "punishment". If they're unlucky, they just vanish, minus a few valuable body parts.