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The AI Revolution: For Patients, Promise and Challenges Ahead">HealthDay In-Depth
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The AI Revolution: Giving Docs a Diagnostic AssistBlood Test Might Predict Worsening MSKeto Diet Might Change Your Gut in More Ways Than OneParkinson's Patient Improving After First-Ever Stem Cell TherapyKey Areas of the Brain Triggered in Recent Heart Attack SurvivorsFirst Good Evidence That Brain Hits 'Replay' While You SleepSome NFL Players May Be Misdiagnosed With Brain Disease: StudyGreenhouse Gases Bad for Your BrainTransplanted Skin Stem Cells Help Blind Mice See LightBrain Plaques Signal Alzheimer's Even Before Other Symptoms Emerge: Study'It's Like You Have a Hand Again': New Prosthetic Gets Closer to the Real ThingLosing a Spouse Could Speed Brain's DeclinePaddles Against Parkinson's: Ping Pong Might Ease SymptomsIn a First, Doctors Use Robotics to Treat Brain AneurysmSkiers Study Suggests Fitness May Stave Off Parkinson'sCRISPR Gene Editing Creates 'Designer' Immune Cells That Fight CancerGene Variant Ups Dementia Risk in Parkinson's Patients: StudyGene Variation May Protect Against Alzheimer's: StudyYoung-Onset Parkinson's May Start in the Womb, New Research SuggestsNew Gene Study Unravels Cancer's SecretsDoes Size Matter? Volume of Brain Area Not Always Tied to Memory, ThinkingGene Test Might Spot Soccer Players at High Risk for Brain TroubleSevere Deprivation in Childhood Has Lasting Impact on Brain SizeIn the Future, Could Exercise's Benefits Come in a Pill?Could Brain Scans Spot Children's Mood, Attention Problems Early?Brain Damage Changes Over Time in Boxers, MMA FightersSpecial 'Invisible' Dye Could Serve as Skin's Vaccination RecordCancer Drug Shows Promise for Parkinson's Patients'Smart' Contact Lenses Might Also Monitor Eye HealthCould Obesity Alter a Child's Brain Structure?Playing Sports Might Sharpen Your HearingAntarctic Study Shows Isolation, Monotony May Change the Human Brain Questions and AnswersLinksBook Reviews |
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by Scientific American (Editors) Warner Books, 2002 Review by L. Syd M Johnson, M.A. on Feb 5th 2003 
Given the recent hubbub over
Clonaid's likely bogus claims to have successfully cloned two human infants, Understanding Cloning, a volume in Scientific American's "Science Made
Accessible" series, could have benefited from a more substantial
discussion of the perils and pitfalls of human cloning. The popular media
generally does a rather poor job of explaining cloning, leaving the general
public ill-prepared to assess, in an informed way, the kinds of wild claims
often made about it. While Understanding
Cloning is not primarily about human cloning, it does address some of the
pros and cons of cloning mammals in Ian Wilmut's chapter "Cloning for
Medicine." Wilmut expresses his hope that human cloning will never come to
pass, and offers a reasonably objective summary of the current shortcomings of
the cloning method he developed, such as high mortality and birth defect rates
among clones. Ronald M. Green's chapter "I, Clone" gives a clear
summary of some of the social and ethical questions raised by cloning,
particularly those surrounding the philosophically tricky question of clone
identity.
While human cloning receives
an extraordinary amount of attention in the popular press, and in the
imaginations of the general public, Understanding
Cloning rightly emphasizes that reputable cloning researchers are more
interested in cloning mammals for slightly less provocative purposes, such as
the creation of transgenic animals for pharmaceutical production and organ and
tissue transplants, the breeding of livestock and endangered species, and
therapeutic cloning to produce human embryonic stem cells. President George W.
Bush's speech, in which he outlined the White House position on limiting human
embryonic stem cell research, is presented in the book without commentary.
Given the poorly reasoned and inconsistent nature of the government's policy,
some explanation of its pro-life agenda, and its negative implications for
research, would have provided much-needed balance.
The breadth of Understanding Cloning is quite
substantial for such a small volume, with chapters covering such diverse topics
as the early roots of cloning in horticulture (where it produced the ubiquitous
Russet Burbank potato), and research on artificial life, still in its infancy,
on the creation of self-replicating machines.
Overall, the science of
cloning is clearly and precisely explained in the book, and Understanding Cloning succeeds, where so
many have failed when it comes to cloning, in balancing optimism and hype with
hard reality.
©
2003 Syd Johnson
Syd Johnson is a Ph.D.
candidate in Philosophy at SUNY Albany, where her primary focus is on genetic
harms to future persons and the ethical implications of genetic technologies
such as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, genetic enhancement and gene therapy. |
