Efforts to produce cloned or genetically modified human beings would constitute a medically unjustifiable and inherently unsafe experiment, putting at risk the physical well-being of women and their children.
The physical hazards of cloning and genetic manipulation have been amply demonstrated by experience with animals. The vast majority of cloned animals fail to develop normally. Many are miscarried or stillborn. Others are born with serious, sometimes lethal, developmental anomalies, including placental and umbilical cord abnormalities, severe immunological deficiencies, anemia, organ deformities, or retarded development. In some species a "large offspring syndrome" is common. Other cloned animals appear healthy when they are born, but soon die for no apparent reason.
Female animals pregnant with cloned offspring have suffered a variety of problems, including complications resulting from the significantly larger size of the fetuses they are carrying. Some of the animal "surrogate mothers" have died.
There is no convincing medical justification for subjecting women and children to these risks.
Related Articles
Rick
Weiss, "Clone Defects Point to Need for 2 Genetic Parents," The
Washington Post (May 10, 1999)
Resources
>> Items >> "Clone Defects Point to Need for 2 Genetic
Parents"
Off-Site Links
Philip Cohen, "Bigger, Not Better," New Scientist (January
23, 1999)
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning/cloning.jsp?id=21702600
Eddie Lau, "Dark Side of Cloning Perplexes Scientists,"
Sacramento Bee (August 18, 1999)
http://www.biotech.ucdavis.edu/links/tac.htm
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