The Best TIME Covers

On TIME's 85th anniversary, check out the most lasting images ever to appear inside the red border and vote for the best cover in TIME history.

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Cloning Humans
The first laboratory duplication of a human embryo raises the question: Where do we draw the line?
November 8, 1993

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Cover Story Excerpt:
When it finally happened — after years of ethical hand wringing and science-fiction fantasy — it was done in such a low-key way by researchers so quiet and self-effacing that the world nearly missed it. The landmark experiment was reported by Jerry Hall at a meeting of the American Fertility Society in Montreal three weeks ago. Afterward, colleagues came up to congratulate him and say "Nice job." Others voted to give his paper, written with his supervisor, Dr. Robert Stillman, the conference's first prize. But nobody seemed to want to pursue the one fact that made his little experiment — in which he started with 17 microscopic embryos and multiplied them like the Bible's loaves and fishes into 48 — different from anything that had preceded it...Read the full story

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