Genetics going too far?

[Guest Musou]

J. CRAIG VENTER, the gene scientist with a history of pulling off unlikely successes, and Hamilton O. Smith, a Nobel laureate, are behind the plan. Their intent is to create a single-celled, partially man-made organism with the minimum number of genes necessary to sustain life. If the experiment works, the microscopic man-made cell will begin feeding and dividing to create a population of cells unlike any previously known to exist.

To ensure safety, Smith and Venter said the cell will be deliberately hobbled to render it incapable of infecting people; it also will be strictly confined, and designed to die if it does manage to escape into the environment.

 

 

 

I will put my honest opinion up as soon as I hear some of the other opinions.

[Guest cynicalprofit]

And if it fails to die and its destorys civilization wont they look great. Oh wait, no one will be around to care.

 

Serioulsy bad idea...Im ok with cloning for food and arm growth, I maynot agree with it, but Im ok with it. But creating new species...thats not right. This is just a tad bit to out there to really be a good idea. I mean if you have to hobble it to prevent it from doing massive damage to humans, shouldnt that alone say, maybe we shouldnt do this.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

J. CRAIG VENTER, the gene scientist with a history of pulling off unlikely successes, and Hamilton O. Smith, a Nobel laureate, are behind the plan. Their intent is to create a single-celled, partially man-made organism with the minimum number of genes necessary to sustain life. If the experiment works, the microscopic man-made cell will begin feeding and dividing to create a population of cells unlike any previously known to exist.

To ensure safety, Smith and Venter said the cell will be deliberately hobbled to render it incapable of infecting people; it also will be strictly confined, and designed to die if it does manage to escape into the environment.

I'm not feeling it.

 

Seriously, though, I agree with cynicalprofit on this one (oh, the horror! )

[Guest Mad Dog]

I'm against it. This is just them slowly building up to cloning a a baby.

[Guest hardyz1]

Bah.

[Guest J*ingus]

I've never understood the big problem with cloning. So there's a 0.001% that whatever new life we make might be harmful, so what? There's all sorts of guys in the Middle East and elsewhere who are actively trying to come up with deadly agents. Double standard?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I'm totally in favor of this. Same with cloning. We can do it, and we can do it safely, so why not? A man-made organism has potential for a lot of things.

 

I'm in favor of cloning, too, if only for the medical benefits. Imagine being someone with a failing organ, and there's no way you're going to get one in time, it would be possible to grow a kidney or whatever than not only works, but is Guaranteed to function in your body, since it's basically your own organ, only an extra one.

[Guest El Satanico]

Sure there could be dangers in this kind of thing, but most of those "dangers" are material for science fiction books. The potential positives of cloning far out weigh the potential negatives.

[Guest Mad Dog]

I'm not against cloning organs and possibly limbs. But I'm very much against them attempting to clone a human being.

[Guest El Satanico]

I'd think having a clone of yourself to harvest parts off of when you need a replacement would be a good thing to have. Don't know why people would have a problem with that.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I'll NEVER understand the human cloning ban. I'm not even against cloning people specifically for parts.

 

Anyways, I wish these dudes luck, because as of yet, we have yet to synthetically create life of any form. However, if they do, this will be a TREMENDOUS breakthrough, and could solve the problems of cloning and stem cells by simply creating cells of organs or whatnot.

 

Until then, I'm waiting for the first human clone. I know they can do it, it's just a matter of time.

 

Kotzenjunge

There Will Be 600 People Who Will Be Models For The Global Population

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I'd think having a clone of yourself to harvest parts off of when you need a replacement would be a good thing to have. Don't know why people would have a problem with that.

And how would that work, exactly? You'd just have some dude sitting around waiting for one of you organs to give out?

 

Enlighten me on how that would work.

 

EDIT: I guess that gives new meaning to "Matt Hardy, Version 1"

[Guest El Satanico]

Yeah pretty much, but i suppose it would be a good idea to put him in suspended animation aka freeze him.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I'm all for cloning organs, and probably limbs. But whole people? No, no, no.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

But why not? Even if we don't use them for parts, what's the harm done?

 

Kotzenjunge

Beta Person

[Guest RobJohnstone]

I am against this, I am not one for someone trying to play god.

 

--Rob

[Guest Mad Dog]

You can clone the individual parts though. Making a person just so you can take their organs is sick. Why not just clone the very organ you need?

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

But why not? Even if we don't use them for parts, what's the harm done?

 

Kotzenjunge

Beta Person

If you're not using them for parts, just go the traditional route (childbirth).

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

It's not that simple. Making organs is where stem cells come into play, not cloning.

 

As I see it, the rest of nature seems to breed and reproduce to its needs, as well as some human cultures, so why not? I can see the emotional reasons, but science was never a field that catered to emotion. Cloning people, even if not for parts, would do more good than harm IF the planet wasn't in the process of overpopulating.

 

Kotzenjunge

Think of the Possibilities of a Genetically Flawless Society

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

As I see it, the rest of nature seems to breed and reproduce to its needs, as well as some human cultures, so why not?

???

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I was referring to Castes and such.

 

The problem with the natural way of making a human is that you have no clue what the outcome will be. Cloning would be super-useful for such already dehumanized conventions as the military. Unfortunately, we can't just make an instant clone. In a way, cloning would be like advanced Eugenics.

 

Kotzenjunge

Should've Made Himself Clearer

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

They wouldn't clone PEOPLE with brains and whatnot, they would clone the people to immediately have a source of organs and whatnot. The clones would be strictly hosts of organs and whatnot so that they can be sustained through time.

 

Also, these clones would not be veritible human beings (this is from an article I read back in the day), they would simply be hosts... I don't believe they would have functioning brains and whatnot.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

So, just a bunch of bodies on life support in a huge hospital to serve as living farms?

 

Creepy

[Guest El Satanico]

Well when they get a full understanding of this genetics stuff they may be able to create humans not just clone humans. As they understand it they would likely be able to control birth defects. So if this god being exists, but science can make better humans than god then why not play god.

 

But of course such ability to actually create a human will likly never exist in our lifetimes. Well then i guess that this argument is pointless at this time so don't mind me.

[Guest El Satanico]

So, just a bunch of bodies on life support in a huge hospital to serve as living farms?

Yes it is total science fiction material, but could actually happen. Maybe science fiction isn't really a good name for the genre.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Well when it comes to stuff like cloning you can rest assured that the public only knows about 1% of what is going on behind closed doors. Hell, they possibly could have already cloned or tried to clone a human being, yet we won't know about it for 5-10 years.

[Guest Slapnuts00]

Think of the Possibilities of a Genetically Flawless Society

So did Hitler...

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Yes, and because he's considered the most evil man ever we have to ignore good ideas that he held also? I mean, eugenics were used by the Nazis to produce a more pure Aryan race, but I'm thinking more in terms of jobs and services, this time using cloning instead of putting people together and hoping something good comes out. With a clone you KNOW what you're getting. The problem is that this is where emotion comes in to hamper potentially practical ideas.

 

Of course, by now, everyone's already thinking of ways to call me a Nazi, so I'll just stop before saying any more.

 

Kotzenjunge

Plays Invisible Man

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Think of the Possibilities of a Genetically Flawless Society

So did Hitler...

I was thinking more along the lines of Emperor Palpatine, actually...

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I've always thought that it would be cool to be frozen..

 

I dunno about cloned.