As if we didn't have enough problems going on in this world, we now have the 'first' cloned human, expected to be born in the first week of January, 2003. Are we under-populated and I just didn't know about it? People procreate like rabbits, yet some Italian fuck head found it necessary to clone more humans. Apparently, fertility speacialist Severino Antinori took it upon himslef to play God by impregnating a woman with a clone. Her identity is being withheld for her safety. If this little 'experiment' is supposed to be acceptable, then why are identities being withheld? The location of where he plans on doing this is also being withheld, but he has suggested he will go on a boat in international waters to avoid getting into any trouble. Personally, I hope someone finds this "doctor" and assassinates his ass. I don't care what anyone says; there is absolutely no valid reason to clone humans. Before you know it, immoral and power hungry countries like Iraq will have armies of clones. Do you think these places would care to lose thousands of clones? Hell no. They'll clone as many humans as possible, make an army of them and use them to try to take over the world. After all, they're just clones, 'robots' if you will. Hasn't anyone thought of this? I thought this shit only existed in sci-fi movies, like Star Wars? I have heard scientists claim the reason for cloning is to have organs to donate to sick people who are in dire need of them. So, let me get this straight- Joe Blow has a bad heart and needs a new one or else he will die. To avoid this, doctors are going to get this heart from a clone. Umm, quick question- how will this clone live without a heart? They can't! You mean to tell me that these clones will be killed to harvest their organs? Does anyone else see the problem with this? Stem cells, grown in a little cup in a lab can and do create these needed organs. No more humans have to be created and then killed for them. So again I ask- what the hell is the purpose of cloned humans? The purpose is to make an incompetent, amoral jackass feel like he has the same power of God in his hands. However, this ill-informed moron claims that he is cloning humans to help infertile couples. Come again? Does he not know that thousand of infertile couples are successfully impregnated by artificial insemination every day without being impregnated with a clone? This is the same idiot that has made it possible for women in their 60's to give birth. What the hell does a woman in her 60's need with a baby? Does she need someone to share diapers with? She'd have to put a bell around the baby's neck to keep from forgetting where she left the kid. It seems to me that this is someone who has the inability to think things through. When you take the genetic materials needed for cloning and actually produce a clone, those genetic materials have weakend, which can cause a number of problems. There are major health defect risks that would emerge later in the clone's life, which as we know, isn't too late in life considering the fact the life expectancy in clones isn't very long. Several of the cloned animals that have been made have already died. I feel cloning gives science a bad name. It goes against established legal, ethical and medical understanding. The practice has already been outlawed by the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, covering not just the EU but all European states. The fact that the scientists are prepared to go "offshore" is testimony to the degree to which the practice is regarded as professionally, medically and ethically unacceptable. It would be criminally irresponsible to attempt a technique on humans which is known frequently to cause deformities, large foetuses and premature deaths in sheep and cattle. This departs from any medical justification. There are also unknown psychological factors. No-one knows or could know what it would be like to be the clone of one's father or mother, nor what expectations and distortions it would put on relationships in the family. But the precautionary principle suggests these are risks we should not run.
