Human Cloning

Since our genes dictate to a large extent what we look like, how we behave and what we can and cannot do, having identical genes, as identical twins do, ensures something more than mere similarity. Novelists and filmmakers have not been slow to exploit the imagery afforded by cloning. Limitless numbers of identical beings manufactured from existing or previous generations has obvious dramatic potential, although seldom of a reassuring nature. Clones traverse the cinema screen …

…and sperm. President Bush also criticized the experiment, saying, "We should not as a society grow life to destroy it, and that's exactly what's taking place." The U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban human cloning last summer. The penalties it set included up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for anyone convicted of trying to clone humans. The U.S. Senate never took up the issue, so it never became law.