Thread: Cloned Babies
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Old 03-03-2004, 01:18 AM   #20
jaguar
whig
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 5,075
I'm no expert but from what I read the cells in dolly aged incredibly fast, I think they may have started at her mother's age or something. Like a counter that needed to be reset or something. That of course it the highly scientific version

Considering the complexity of the human body I'll be surprised if we can accurately pick more than a couple of traits by the end of the century. The genome is an incredibly complex intertwined mass and the opportunities for experimentation are very, very minimal.

If the first publicly shown clone is a fuckup the science will be off the agenda for the next 20 years. If someone is caught doing it behind the scenes the effect will be similar. We're still miles off being able to even guesstimate which genes control things like eyecolour without side effects - genetic characteristics tend to be the result of a mix bag of genes, it's like like you flick the switch up for brown and down for green. The whole exercise is like decrypting a massive RSA key.

Of course sooner or later, it will happen and all the moral handwringing will have no effect whatsoever.
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