ABSTRACT
The successful cloning of an adult sheep, announced in Scotland in February of 1997, is one of the most dramatic recent examples of a scientific discovery becoming a public issue. The genetic contribution to the simplest physical traits, such as height and hair color, is significantly mediated by environmental factors. One set of ethical concerns about human clones involves the risks and uncertainties associated with the current state of cloning technology. Human cloning falls conceptually between two other technologies. At one end the people have the assisted reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization, whose primary purpose is to enable couples to produce a child with whom they have a biological connection. At the other end the people have the emerging technologies of genetic engineering—specifically, gene transplantation technologies—whose primary purpose is to produce a child that has certain traits.
