Clones
and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning
by Martha C. Nussbaum (Editor),
Cass R. Sunstein (Editor)
Reviews
Amazon.com
Nussbaum and Sunstein have collected a comprehensive
set of essays on the implications of cloning, which has not been attempted
with humans as of this writing, but almost surely will be within a few
years. The editors include Ian Wilmut's original research paper reporting
the existence of Dolly, the cloned sheep, as well as ethical analysis papers
by popular science writers such as Stephen
Jay Gould and Richard
Dawkins. Four fiction pieces round out the collection. Opinion pieces
on topics ranging from the soul of a clone to clones raised for body parts
are the most interesting essays in the bunch. In the horror-scenario category,
Andrea
Dworkin takes the position that in a world where cloning is possible,
men will clone only compliant women, at last gaining the control over reproduction
they've always wanted. (Dworkin ignores the fact that no gene for compliance
has yet been isolated.) Questions of nature versus nurture will presumably
be answered in the brave new world of cloning, and many of the writers
in Clones and Clones imagine the ramifications of finding out how
much our lives are predestined by our DNA. Read this book before you donate
your cells to the local lab.
Publishers Weekly
The spectrum of authors and their varying
perspectives in fact and fiction are assets to anyone who hopes to understand
this broad issue and its vast cultural implications.
Chicago Tribune, Choice Selections of
1998
These two dozen essays by experts ranging
from Stephen Jay Gould to Andrea Dworkin are an excellent guide to the
post-Dolly world.
Customer Comments
Peter.Werner@t-online.de
from Essingen, Germany, December 18, 1998
I'm glad I'm not a clone
This book is a must for all those who want
to inform themselves about this problem, which will mark the history of
our near future. It is not highly scientific because at the moment we can
only speculate what kind of impact cloning of humans may have on us - once
it is allowed. If it is not allowed, it will be done - because what
someone thinks will be carried out. It has been like that throughout
our scientific history. (Otto Hahn dropped the idea of the atomic bomb
- and someone else built it.) We will have to face human clones in the
very near future. And we want to know how we will face this new situation.
And this is what this book is about. It gives you a variety of impulses
and, of course, it has to be highly speculative. We simply cannot analyze
a situation that we do not have in reality. The stories at the end of the
book are not very good, but they are a good try to interest readers that
have difficulties with facts only. Science fiction literature would have
provided far better stories. I am glad this book was written, and I'm glad
I'm not a clone.
A reader from Madison, Wisconsin,
September 6, 1998
Jargon filled academic articles with
lame attempt at fiction
The most interesting chapter in this book
was by Eric and Richard Posner and their attempt to apply economic reasoning
to explain what type of people will engage in cloning. However, the self
selection arguments about what those who clone reveal to others by cloning
seem a little difficult to believe. Many of the other chapters, such as
the one by Andrea Dworkin, are bizarre. Does anyone really think that the
major problem with cloning is that men will cloning submissive women whom
they can dominate? This is pure emotionalism. No evidence is offered that
the most submissive women are currently the most prized as wives so why
do we think that this will change when cloning is allowed. More importantly,
even if you cloned a submissive women, how can you be sure that you will
be the one that she will marry? I realize that these are difficult topics,
but, unfortunately, too many of the chapters were argued on the emotional
level with no evidence to back up their assertions one way or the other.
Epstein's chapter made a strong case for
not regulating the procedure, though more of a discussion on whether regulation
will ultimately even be possible would have been useful.
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