Global Bioethics

ISSN: 1128-7462 (Print) 1591-7398 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgbe20

Human clonation in Internet

C. Susanne, M. A. Piazza & T. Moretti

To cite this article: C. Susanne, M. A. Piazza & T. Moretti (2001) Human clonation in Internet,
Global Bioethics, 14:2-3, 53-57, DOI: 10.1080/11287462.2001.10800796

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2001.10800796

Published online: 10 Feb 2014.

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GLOBAL BIOETHICS Vol. 14- N. 2-3 - 2001

C. Susanne Human clonation in Internet

Vrife Universilet Brussel Faculteit Lots of web sites offer the possibility to clonate human beings.
Another problem of ethics of communications.
Laboratorium Antropogenetica
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Brussels
scharles@vub.ac.be

M.A. Piazza
T. Moretti

c/o Istituto di Antropologia

Universita di Firenze
Via del Proconsolo 12
50122- Firenze
antropos@un!fi. it

Keywords: Human donation, Interoet

The modern kind of communication implies the use of Internet. Obviously communication
is not only Internet, but it is the newest and the most important way by which people can
communicate each other and one of the most relevant sources of infonnation for a large public
specially of young people.
Recently there has been a terrific increase of websites devoted to Bioethics from
environmental ethics to biotechnologies.
Among the possibilities that biotechnologies seem to offer us, human donation is the one that
more excite the imagination of people.
Is the possibility to create a copy of itself becoming a reality? Naturally the real situation
is enormously more complicate but a lot of people want to express the opinion that have in
mind about this delicate question.
In this way we can see a lot of e-mails in public discussion forums on the Net and also
some personal websites.
Websites devoted to the problems of human donation have been made by academic
structures and religious organizations. Generally in these websites the general problem is
seriously considerated from different points of view but is easy to fmd a critical examination
based on scientific research and specific philosophical considerations.
Unfortunately not all the websites are based on a critical thought and scientific
knowledge. In fact, a person looking for information about this problem that digits "human
54 C. SUSANNE

clonation" using a normal search engine can have some strange encounters. It's not difficult
to find, in this way, organizations that offer you the possibility to clonate part of human body
or an entire human being. The possibility of doing all, this is shown as certain and the
technical and ethical reasons can be different but all have a point in common: if you want
clonate yourself or another person (e.g: sons, parents, wife or husband) you have to pay.
This particular shows clearly that the reasons adduced to clonate human beings are not
so disinterested how it could seem: first money, then the clone requested and (why not?), by
this way, clone by clone, the possibility to spend an eternal life and youth in good company
of clones of handsome men or beautiful women.
Reflecting on this kind of information offered by Internet we clearly see that the real
problem is the creation of a public opinion capable to have a critical attitude towards the
messages of the media, able to distinguish the true (or possible) news from the tricks.
The rise of the level of cultural and scientific knowledge and the development of a
critical approach to different problems should be one ofthe most important goal of a modern
society that wants to save and develop the democratic organization. Also the problem of the
communication is an ethical problem, one of the most important both for present and future
generations of men.
Here following there is a list of the websites visited to collect some information for the
contribution prepared in occasion of the meeting of the European Society ofGlobal Bioethics
held in Florence on 16 December 2000. Naturally every day lots ofwebsites devoted to this
problem can appear and disappear and for this reason we have to be ready to maintain our
critical attitude.

Scientific websites

http://afgen.cornlcloning.htrnl
http://bioethics.gov/pubs.htrnl
http://clone.newscientist.com/
http://mercur.usao.edu/www/faculty/shaferilshafer l.htrnl
http://www.cs. virginia.edu/-jones/tmp352/projects98/group I /how.htrnl
http://www.nejm.org/content/1998/033 8/0013/0905 .asp
http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis
http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/elsilcloning.htrnl
http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_ Genomelhome.htrnl
http://www.phrma.org/genomics/cloninglindex.html
http://www.scienceweek.com/swfrO l6.htrn
http://www.woomb.org/omrrcalbulletinlvol26/no3/cloning.html
http://www. wordwiz72.cornlcloning.htrnl
http://www.yale.edu/ynhtilcurriculurnlunits/2000/3/00.03.07.x.htrnl
http://www2.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk/library/research/cloning/cloneweb.htrnl

Politics websites

http://agingresearch.org/Advocacy/cabohcbgfah.htm
HUMAN CLONATION IN INTERNET 55

http://freedom.house.govnibrary/technology/pr980 I 07 .asp
http://freedom.house.gov/library/technology/pr980212.asp
http://users. westnet.gr/-cgian/
http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/cstc/bulletinlarticles/2-98/hclone.htm
http://www.acs.org/governmentlscproject/scp_ cloning.html
http://www.health.gov.au/archive/mediareVl998/mw298.htm
http://www.dti.gov.uklhgac
http://www.house.gov/watkins/wwclone.htm
http://www.humanlife.net/News/june99news.htmlabortion/nineteen.html
http://www.tennesseerighttolife.org/
http://www.jamiat.org.za/v3 7 cloning.html
http://www.lp.org/press/archive.php?function=view&record=86

Religious websites

http://exmormon.org/boards/honestboard/messages/674.html
http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/-macer/EJ52H.html
http://www.care.org.uk/
http://www.cbhd.org/newsletter/002/002omathuna.htm
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PROLIFEIORCLONES.HTM
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/humclon.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/cloning.htm
http://www.thelutheran.org/9705/page26.html
http://www.truthtree.com/clone.shtml

Personal opinions on the Web

http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/clone-adoptmodel.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/politmoral-commit.html
http://www.freespeech.org/humancloning/core.html
http://www.genesage.com/professionals/geneletter/archives/twentyonearguments.html
http://www.hotwired.com/synapse/braintennis/97/3 7/indexOa.html
http://www.humancloning.org/index.shtml
http://www.InsideThe Web.com/mbs.cgi/mb411365
http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/wwwboard/neaVmessages/34.html
http://www.misterpoll.com/2028361636.html
http://www.mowchuk.com/screate/screate.html
http://www.netlink.de/gen/Zeitung/ 1998/981216.htm
http://www.nutri.com/cloning/
http://www.objana.com/frog/clone.html
http://www.omnimag.com/forums/cloninglmessages/348.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fertility/etc/cloning.html
http://www.probe.org/docs/hwnclone.html
56 C. SUSANNE

http://www.purefood.org/Patentlhurnanclone2.htm
http://www. womens-health.orglcloning.html
http://www.statenews.com/editionsspring98/020498/op-col.html
http://www.globalchange.com/clone-index.htm
http://www.digiweb.com/-pdixon/clonech.htm

Bioethics

http://cac.psu.edu/-gsgl09/qs/
http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/-macer/hugoclone.html
http://www.puaf.urnd.edu/ippp/Fall97Report/cloning.htm

Journalistic Websites

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar2000/2000L-03-30-02.html
http://genetics.about.com/educationlgeneticslmsubch.htm
http:/I grove.ufl.edu/-ktrickei/Listening/cloning/cloning.html
http://news.bbc.co.uklhilenglish/sciltech/newsid-377000/377031.stm
http://news. bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid-71 0000/710445 .stm
http://news. bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid-881 000/881940.stm
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uklhi/english/sci/tech/newsid-88l 000/881940.stm
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uklhilenglish/sci/tech/newsid-40000/40870.stm
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid-881 000/881940 .stm
http://www.amcity.com/sacramento/stories/ l999/02/08/editorial4.html
http://www.biofact.com/cloning/human.html
http://www.chron.com/cgi-binlauth/story.mpl/content/chroniclelnation/98/02/l2/clone.2-0.html
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/08/29/pope.cloning/
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9803/26/cloning.controversy/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9703/04/clinton.cloning/
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9703/12/cloning.news/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/980 1107/cloning.folo
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/12/cloning.banl
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/980 1/ 12/cloning.banlvideo.html
http://www.dawn.com/2000/08/ 17/top l6.htm
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9903/reviewslgarcia.html
http://www.guardianunlimited.eo.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3877959,00.html
http://www.guardianunlimited.eo.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,39854 73,00.html
http://www.guardianunlimited.co. uk/theissues/article/0,6512,349021 ,OO.html
http://www.npr.org/news/health/980 106.cloning.html
http://www.onlineathens.com/1998/0 11398/0 113 .a4cloning.html
http://www.sciam.com/1999/0999bionic/0999green.html
http://www.sciam.com/explorations/030397clone/030397beards.html
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/1998/Jan/hourl-O I 0998.html
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/cpace/theory/baudrillard/stein.html
HUMAN CLONATION IN INTERNET 57

http://www.stp.uh.edu/vol62/l44/0pEd/Op3/0p3 .html
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/cloning/watson.htm
http://www. usnews.com/usnews/issue/97031 0/1 Ofutu.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nationalllongtenn/science/cloninglcloning6.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/science/cloning/overview.htm
http://www. wired.com/news/print/0, 1294,35309,00.html
http://www. wnet.orglinnovationl
http://www.worldbook.com/funlbth/cloninglhtml/cloning.html
http://www.ynhproductions.com/words/clone.html

Educational Websites

http://emagazine.com/july-august-1997/0797curr-clone.html
http://members.tripod.com/-cloningl
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/-mchorost/e306/been/cloning.htm
http://www.ess.ucla.edu/hugellegal.html
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/2705/
http://www.ncgr.org/gpi/odyssey/dolly-cloning/cloning-humans.html

Commercial Websites

http://www.best.com/-vere/cloning.htm
http://www.clonaid.com/
Humorous Websites
http://members.tripod.com/-Saulrnlclone.htm
http://www.d-b.net/dti/