Abducting The Cloning Debate

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The damage is done whether Clonaid's claims are a hoax or not. The Raelians can be assured that all the free advertising has worked, and inquiries from prospective parents will rise with each new headline. This desperation leads some lawmakers, ethicists and scientists themselves to argue that it is time to take a broader look at the rules that govern reproductive science. According to a new survey by Johns Hopkins University, two-thirds of Americans approve of using genetic screening to help parents have a baby free of a serious genetic disorder. But more than 70% are against using such techniques to design children to be smarter or more attractive, and 76% are against working on ways to clone humans.

So what should be permissible and what should not? Does the promise of a new technology outweigh the risks that it could be misused? The challenges are too important to address in a climate of fear or ignorance or to be distorted by the greed or vainglory of renegade scientists with an alien agenda. --Reported by Melissa August/Washington, Andrea Dorfman and Deirdre van Dyk/New York, Jeff Israely/Rome and Tim Padgett/Miami