CGS-authored
Dolly is dead. The most famous sheep in the world, also the
first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was put down in
February of this year. This happened shortly after the birth
of a cloned baby was announced to the public, though never verified.
Dolly's death created less of a sensation than her birth. However,
even if the exact causes of this death have yet to be ascertained,
it clearly raises the question of the long-term effects of cloning
on the cloned organism. And in a way it grants human beings
some respite. The codes governing medical research forbid the
experimentation on human beings of a process whose safety and
efficiency have not yet been proved through animal testing.
But what will be the outcome when the technical barrier has
been lifted, and when the argument of sanitary precaution no
longer applies? Before it even materializes, the perspective
of human cloning confronts us and our social awareness with
a major ethical, cultural, and political challenge. The organisation
of which I am the Director-General, at the time of...