Transcript for Clip 2 -- Cloning Around:
What does it mean to be a human being and what is that made up of? I
think most people would suggest that individuals are their genetic
makeup: whatever the influences of their environment have; how they
have impacted them, and then how they see themselves; how do they
self-identify as who they are. So you could clone a Michael Jordan and
twenty years from now when he's a grown person, he would have the
genetic makeup of the Michael Jordan that we know. But because he was
raised by a different family, the impact of his environment may mean that
he hasn't even seen a basketball. And he may see himself as an
individual and his gifts in an area that are different than the original
Michael Jordan saw as his gifts. So the fact that we clone someone means
that we reproduce their genetic makeup. It doesnŐt mean that we
reproduce that same individual. Transcript for Clip 3 -- Ethical Issues:
Cloning and genetic therapies will raise for us issues that are huge in
terms of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable, because we're
now talking about messing with genetic makeup of people. We can sort
of talk about tomato plants or the hybrid seed corn or whatever,
because if some of those get thrown out in the process, it's no big deal,
relatively speaking. But if we start creating embryos that aren't
potential people, then what does that mean and what does it say to us
about the value of human life. We create...a lot of questions [for
ourselves].
Top
Posted March 6, 2001