Here, Kitty, Kitty!

To critics, such arguments seem like moral fig leaves. They view cc as an ethical dry run for human cloning, and they're troubled by how the rehearsal is going. "Once cloning is on its own as a commercial enterprise, there really is no oversight," says Lori Gruen, a Wesleyan University ethics professor who generally supports cloning research. Could a culture that can't agree on the morality of using human embryos to create stem cells tolerate a technology in which 86 human embryos have to die to create an 87th? "Why do it?" asks Pacelle. "It seems to me a very dangerous line of thought to pursue."

As if on cue, Panayiotis Zavos, a retired University of Kentucky professor who for two years has been boasting that he would be the first to clone a human, announced last week that he has selected 10 infertile couples and is set to begin work next month. If you thought cc was hard not to love, wait until you see the first baby.