Implications of New Cloning Technology

The essays by John Horgan and Martin E. Marty (“The Ultimate Human-Potential Movement,” Opinion, March 2) are particularly thought-provoking, but they generally ignore a key question: Should the government be allowed to validate or veto an individual’s rationale for creating a child? If sterile men or women wish to pass their genes on to the next generation, shouldn’t they be allowed to use cloning and willing surrogate mothers? Individuals who currently employ surrogate mothers to produce children genetically similar to themselves are allowed this right. If there is to be equal protection under the law, then cloning an identical twin should be allowed also. Perhaps the only humane solution to this problem is to put a moratorium on all technologies involving human surrogates, at least until all orphans in the world have been adopted.

While Christian theologians are producing reams of essays on the ethics of cloning, none seem to have considered that Christ might have been God’s clone. This would explain how the son and father could be same, yet distinct, and that Mary was the original surrogate mother.

KENNETH LONG PhD

Associate Professor of Biology

California Lutheran University

Thousand Oaks

Not to talk out of school, let’s be honest about why we male scientists are all in favor of a ban on human cloning (“Clinton Bans U.S. Funds for Human Cloning Research,” March 5).

No one questions the right of a woman to become pregnant by any other means--and that’s what cloning does, makes females pregnant. No one has suggested banning in vitro fertilization or the fertility drugs that allow women to give birth to seven underweight babies. No one would dare suggest banning human creation by drug-addicted, unwed, teenage girls. What terrifies us good old boys is the one and only thing that makes cloning different from other methods of human procreation: It makes men obsolete. Perish the thought.

ALLEN D. ALLEN

Studio City

It’s my body; my choice, right? But what if I want my body cloned and “warehoused for spare parts”? Upon what basis can government decide what I can or cannot do with my body? Will this be the same basis upon which abortion is legal? After all, my clone would be more of my personal body than a fetus is to its mother.

TOM BUCKOWSKI

Costa Mesa

Cloning human beings does have its bright side--it could eliminate the age-old struggle of keeping up with the Joneses. Because cloning will make it possible for everyone to be the Joneses.

MICHAEL WAGMAN

Hidden Hills