World is not ready for human clones

Since the stunning news last year that scientists had cloned an adult mammal -- Polly the Scottish sheep -- the world has been forced to confront the idea that it could now be technically possible to make genetic carbon copies of humans. And it is very apparent that the human race is not yet ready to make a judgment on the ethical considerations of such a possibility.

Most people have little idea about what is involved in the cloning process, but most people understand the potential for abuse and genetic chaos. Some of our fears are the result of science fiction scenarios that foresee the genetic resurrection of dead people, the mass-production of dangerous superhumans and the pursuit of immortality by transplanting our brains in specially-bred replacement bodies.

But there is also a simpler fear that cloning is something we should not mess with because it subverts the evolutionary process and the most basic impulse of humanity -- to breed sexually. At the heart of the matter is that cloning sidesteps the reshuffling and screening inherent in the genetic process and strips evolution of the main source of the variation that drives it. Cloning would mark a break from a billion year tradition of culling catastrophic mutations.

Nineteen European nations agreed on Monday to prohibit efforts "to create human beings genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead". Momentum is building in the U.S. Congress for similar legislation.

These developments are a move in the right direction, but it will take global action to prevent the classic "mad scientist" pushing the envelope too far.

-- The Nation, Bangkok