Slashdot Mirror
South Korean Cloners In Hot Water Over Donors
Xookliba writes "Last February, South Korean scientists succeeded in the world's first human clone. Read the slashdot article here. As it turns out, they might have not been the best abassadors for this technology as they are currently mired in an ethical scandal over the source of the eggs used in the experiment. The field definitely does not need this type of debacle. No doubt this will fuel the argument of those who oppose all types of cloning, including the beneficial therapeutic cloning that this research was aimed at.
Read the story here."
The way things are going in our culture, when you are old and suffering from Parkinson's you won't be cured, rather you'll be harvested for parts. The thinking at that time will be that you aren't human anymore, or that you are too much of a burden for society. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear not
I doubt this will be a valid concern. Young fresh parts are desireable. Why would you want old parts from someone with a debilitating sickness?
I call B.S. Care to offer some evidence for this sweeping statement? I have no problem with medical advancement, just with "advancement" that is conducted at the expense of someone who has no say in the matter.
Lab rats? Clinical trials on Chimpanzees? These types of tests go on every day and I would certainly say some percentage of them are to the detrimant of those being used for the tests. I'm pretty sure they have no say in the matter as well. Of course that's ok cause they aren't human right? Most human trials are done wiht volunteers, but what about in the past like when MIT did radiation research at a home for the mentally challenged or the Army releasing chemicals into the air on certain populations to test the effects without bothering to tell anyone. There are plenty of sites keeping track of this type of secret studies. Such as above top secret. If you don't find that a credible source you could always look at the CDC pages for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study which was certainly done inappropriatly.
I should probably clarify that I don't think a fertilized embryo is a human yet and that I'm ok with stem cell research etc. I also think that if we are going to ban it then our own government shouldn't be offshoring the research to get around our laws. Besides.. who's to say that with more research we won't work out a method for cloning specific parts and not whole people from whom parts will be harvested. This makes the most sense to me. Like the recent announcment that stem cells may be used to regrow teeth. We might just figure out how to grow just kidneys, livers, hearts, or whatever we need. Then we won't have issues with people dieing while waiting on transplant need lists and can potentially guarantee successful acceptance of new organs by the body.