[extropy-chat] Anti-research hysteria

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

At one day from the beginning of the UN debate on therapeutic cloning,
there are a few interesting articles in the press. The Washington Post
has a good summary of where things stand, and a very good article on
"A Cloning Compromise That Works" by the president of the Royal
Society, Britain's national academy of sciences. The proposal put
forward by Belgium and supported by Britain, would prohibit human
reproductive cloning but would allow individual countries to make
their own decisions about therapeutic cloning for research.
The Times quotes one of the leading spokesmen for the fundamentalist
anti-research hysteria, Pres. Bush´s advisor Leon Kass: "By allowing
scientists to clone human embryos for research, countries such as
Britain that have permissive regulatory regimes are promoting the
perfection of technology that will one day be abused for
reproduction". Kass does not seem too concerned with the potential of
therapeutic cloning for treating diseases and saving lives.
http://www.cyborgdemocracy.net/2004/10/anti-research-hysteria.html