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"I
ask you to seriously consider both the short and long-term
consequences of these new human genetic manipulations, especially
germ line alteration and human reproductive cloning…I am concerned
that many more women will be harmed than helped. Overall, women
--not men-- will bear the major physical, psychological, social,
moral, legal, political, and economic burdens of these genetic
manipulations. Finally and most importantly, human reproductive
cloning and germ line alteration, whatever their risks, are
unprecedented and irreversible." "The prospect of human germline engineering represents a
point of decision-one that ranks among the most consequential that
humanity will ever make. We should acknowledge that human germline
engineering is an unneeded technology that poses horrific risks, and
adopt policies to ban it." Excerpt from open letter opposing human germline engineering,
Feb. 16, 2000, and selected signators: Signed by over 150
progressive and environmentalist leaders, including Amory B. Lovins,
Rocky Mountain Institute, Bill McKibben, author, The End of Nature,
and Gary Snyder, poet "It is essential that the United States join the many other
nations that have banned reproductive cloning. If we let purely
technical and utilitarian considerations determine what is
acceptable in human reproduction and production, in a few brief
years embryo cloning will assuredly lead to the production of
'experimental' human beings."
"This is certainly a time when the very distant promise of
medical miracles should be juxtaposed against the incredibly risky
path of allowing human embryo cloning to go forward at this
particular moment. Right now, a moratorium on such research cloning
is the ONLY prudent public policy." Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Boston Women's Health
Book Collective, Author of Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New
Century "Human germline engineering and reproductive cloning would
constitute an unprecedented and dangerous transformation of
reproduction and of the lives of women and children. They would
exacerbate the commodification of children and the commercialization
of procreation."
"With virtually no major public
debate and an appalling paucity of scientific evidence into the
safety of the research field itself, the United States has
recklessly allowed genetic engineering to proceed almost entirely
unregulated. We are now on the verge of giving the green light to a
frightening array of genetic experimentation …The undersigned
organizations support measures that would make illegal the cloning
of human beings and the manipulation of the human germline. . .
Other nations such as those in the European Union have taken action
to outlaw these activities. It is time for the United States to do
the same." Joint Statement signed by Friends of the Earth and Physicians
for Human Rights, July 1999, "Cloning and Germline Manipulation
Letter to Congress, the President and Federal
Agencies," On
endangered species cloning: "... saving the genetic code of a
species isn't the same as saving its place in an ecosystem. Once an
animal has lost its place in the wild, how can it truly be brought
back?" "[In a few hundred years] the GenRich - who account for 10
percent of the American population - [will] all carry synthetic
genes. . .All aspects of the economy, the media, the entertainment
industry, and the knowledge industry [will be] controlled by members
of the GenRich class. . .Naturals [will] work as low-paid service
providers or laborers. . .[Eventually] the GenRich class and the
Natural class will become. . . entirely separate species with no
ability to cross-breed, and with as much romantic interest in each
other as a current human would have for a
chimpanzee."
What the Cloning Advocates Are
Saying "Many people love their retrievers and their sunny
dispositions around children and adults. Could people be chosen in
the same way? Would it be so terrible to allow parents to at least
aim for a certain type, in the same way that great breeders. . .try
to match a breed of dog to the needs of a family?" Gregory Pence, professor of philosophy in the Schools of
Medicine and Arts/Humanities at the University of Alabama, Who's
Afraid of Human Cloning? (New York: Roman and Littlefield, 1998,
page 168) "We will get there, because very simply it's a matter of
determination. And I think we are determined to get there," Zavos
said.'
"And down the road I believe that cloning will enable us to
have some kind of eternal life. Cloning combining with age research
will lead to an extending of human life. I don't believe in an
eternal life anywhere except on earth. If we want to live in
paradise, that is here." "I
think we have everything we need to proceed now with humans."
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