Word: cloninger
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The ethical questions raised by developments in science, politics, and social issues in the past few years emphasize the rapidly increasing importance of responsible professionals. Was Karen Quinlan's doctor right to prolong her life? Should administrators employ affirmative action? How should scientists decide where to limit cloning? In response...
Jonathan R. Beckwith '57, professor of Microbiology and Modern Genetics at the Med School, said yesterday he filed the suit in response to claims of a soon-to-be published book that doctors secretly created a human baby through cloning.
Dr. Ethan R. Signer, professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who also called for release of information concerning cloning experiments, said cloning is "an abomination," because scientists may use this knowledge in an attempt to improve the human race by controlling hereditary factors.
Cloning is a procedure that transplants the nucleus of a donor cell into a fertile egg cell from which the nucleus has been removed, thereby creating an individual genetically identical to the donor. Scientists have successfully cloned frogs but have been unable to clone mammals.
"Cloning is an ethical, legal and psychological question as well as a political one," Beckwith said. "Research costs taxpayers money and people have a right to know what's going on."