Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Dolly, the world-famous cloned sheep, was born in February 1997. Dolly's “conception” was not immaculate; indeed, it was not even a conception. It was certainly not heralded by an angelic annunciation. But, this notwithstanding, its impact has reverberated around the world. Dolly has also given birth to a number of myths, not least among which is the myth that she presents a danger to humanity, the human gene pool, genetic diversity, the ecosystem, the world as we know it, and to the survival of the human species. This chapter will have four parts. First, it will describe the processes and various sorts of products of cloning. It will then note the social, political, and legislative response to the birth of a sheep. Third, it will look at the arguments that have been produced concerning the ethics of human reproductive cloning; and, finally, it will briefly consider one very general argument which, by placing cloning as a reproductive technology, offers a very general defence of the practice. Cloning did not start with the birth of Dolly, nor yet did artificially produced clones start with the birth of Dolly. The first type of cloning was, of course, the creation, via sexual reproduction, of so-called identical (monozygotic) twins. These sorts of clones have always been with us and, confining ourselves to humans for the moment, humankind has a vast, and on the whole successful, ... log in or subscribe to read full text