X-Message-Number: 7832
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 20:04:51 -0800 (PST)
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: Moaning about Cloning

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On Sun, 9 Mar 1997 Chris Benatar <> Wrote:

        >Another myth is that women do not need men in the cloning process. 
          
That's no myth, that's fact.
           


        >An egg and a sperm cell (from a MAN) are needed to produce the
                >embryo. 
            

No, test tube fertilization of humans has been around for 20 years, but this 
is something new, something revolutionary. Recipe to clone a human:  
Take an egg cell from a female and remove the DNA, take a cell, any cell 
except a red blood cell, from the person you want to clone and put it in a 
test tube for 5 days, only feed the cell 5% of the food it normally uses so 
it goes into a state of quiescence, place the sleeping cell next to the egg 
that has been robed of its DNA, give them a small jolt of electricity so the 
two merge and watch them divide, when they reach the 8 or 16 cell stage 
transfer them to the womb of the host mother, simmer for 9 months. 

Sperm is in no way involved in any of this, as far as reproduction is 
concerned men are as obsolete as vacuum tubes.
          


        >As to artificial wombs and using other animal wombs, this may all be
                >possible someday  
                   

It's probably possible now, already horses have given birth to test tube 
zebras. It would be interesting to know if a human egg cell is really needed 
to clone a person, one from an animal such as a cow might work. Of course, 
then the human clone would have cow mitochondria DNA, but that might not be a 
problem. It could turn out that a woman is not needed for reproduction 
either.

I don't see how having a DNA sample would help anyone when they try to 
recover you from suspension. If you are suspended they would be able to get a  
perfect copy of all your DNA even if your body suffered massive genetic 
damage, since each cell has a complete copy and they would have many 
trillions to work with. One more cell would not be important.
        
Nevertheless it might be of value, despite all your best intentions you might 
end up not being put in cryonic suspension at all, you could be lost at sea 
and the DNA sample all that remains of you. I realize that a clone made with 
such DNA would have none of your memories so it would be a poor sort of
immortality, but it would be better than nothing. Contrary to popular opinion  
survival is probably not a all or nothing matter. 


                                             John K Clark     

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