You know, I can see why the japanese geneticits are doing this... it's simply a way to exploit a loophole in the international cloning treaty -if you want to clone a human to harvest the organs for transplants, all you have to do is alter it's genetic code in some superficial way, in this case by splicing in a bit of animal dna, and then you're no longer cloning or subsequently killing a human.
top marks go to the japs for initiative if not ingenuity... personally I think doing this shows a digraceful lack of respect for life -both human and non-human. Why not just wait untill the technology is available to clone individual organs or body parts without making a living being with a body and a thinking mind attached?
Sure some people would die waiting for transplants but in this case its really the lesser of two evils...
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I can see why the japanese geneticits are doing this... it's simply a way to exploit a loophole in the international cloning treaty -if you want to clone a human to harvest the organs for transplants, all you have to do is alter it's genetic code in some superficial way, in this case by splicing in a bit of animal dna, and then you're no longer cloning or subsequently killing a human. top marks go to the japs for initiative if not ingenuity... personally I think doing this shows a digraceful lack of respect for life -both human and non-human. Why not just wait untill the technology is available to clone individual organs or body parts without making a living being with a body and a thinking mind attached? Sure some people would die waiting for transplants but in this case its really the lesser of two evils...