Most news networks on Thursday reported the story about a private laboratory in California who has successfully cloned a human embryo. Accordingly DNA was extracted from the donated egg and replaced with DNA from a lab donor. Reportedly, the altered embryo was later destroyed.
This is obviously mind boggling science. Yet with all the research going on in this area one knew that such a breakthrough would soon occur. I would expect that we will hear a lot of radical comments from the religious community over the next few months. From their perspective science is definitely prodding into areas reserved solely for Mother Nature.
One of the reports I listened to explained some of the positives associated with this knowledge that I hadn't even considered. Theoretically a laboratory could grow a new organ that would be an exact replacement for one that had failed or become diseased. Since the new "part" would be a duplicate, the body would not reject it. Quite a plus for someone with say heart or kidney problems.
From a sinister point of view I can perceive a lot of negatives. Imagine if someone such as Adolph Hitler had this science available to him. Would his dream to create a superior Arian race be possible? What about some of the other off-the-wall lunatic dictators in the world today? Would not their ego alone impel them to insist that their linage continued through subsequent generations?
Then on the other hand there's the Hollywood crowd. Could any of us stand ten more Britney Spears or five more Paris Hilton's?
No comments:
Post a Comment