Mouse Cloned From Drop of Blood 111
Ogi_UnixNut writes "Scientists in Japan have succeeded in cloning a mouse from a drop of blood. From the BBC: 'Circulating blood cells collected from the tail of a donor mouse were used to produce the clone, a team at the Riken BioResource Center reports in the journal Biology of Reproduction.' The female mouse managed to live a normal lifespan and could reproduce, according to the researchers."
Re:Star cloning controversy (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you with the kid if Hitler is cloned?
Nothing. Apart from looking like the original, he'll be raised differently by different people in a different environment and so he won't be the same person. A clone is just a biological copy, not a psychological one.
Does Mr. Pitt owe child support to any of his clones? Or does Brad Pitt's father owe child support to the clones?
No and no.
It's not even valid questions, you'd need incredibly twisted logic and totally ass-backward laws to support these ideas.
Re:Star cloning controversy (Score:4, Insightful)
you'd need incredibly twisted logic and totally ass-backward laws to support these ideas.
Now you got me worried...
I don't want to be a Epsilon (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Star cloning controversy (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/sperm-donor-sued-child-support-article-1.1232394 [nydailynews.com]
As for the Hitler kid. It is not so much that the kid would be a genocidal monster but would have the crushing weight of history on him. I suspect that regardless of his predisposition that there would be groups calling for his blood (bad pun).
The key here is that cloning is going to result in some screwed up situations.
Let's say a serial killer has 5 clones made before he is caught. Then the first 4 (all raised differently) go on a killing spree themselves. What do you do with the 5th?
Then what about the billionaire who has 300,000 clones made of himself by paying 300,000 women $10,000 each to be impregnated with his clone. (For the low price of $3 billion.)
Re:I don't want to be a Epsilon (Score:5, Insightful)
Cloning smart people or beautiful people or athletic people is NOT the problem. The problem is when they decide to clone stupid people as servants & laborers. when the creation of slave classes of low-intelligence clones becomes economically viable, it will become a commercial, not social activity.
Why bother? Machines make better servants and smart people can build them.
Re:Star cloning controversy (Score:5, Insightful)
If it gets out that he's a cloned Hitler (or Boston Strangler, or Jeffrey Dahmer, or whatever) the kid could never have a normal life - he'd be in the fishbowl forever, because of a choice somebody else made. That right there makes it unethical.