ABSTRACT
The birth of Dolly, the world-famous cloned sheep, triggered the most extraordinary re-awakening of interest in, and concern about, cloning and indeed about scientific and technological innovation and its regulation and control. She has fuelled debate in a number of fora: genetic and scientific, political and moral, journalistic and literary. She has also given birth to a number of myths, not least among which is the myth that she represents a danger to humanity, the human gene pool, genetic diversity, the ecosystem, the world as we know it, and to the survival of the human species. Cloning is a technology and indeed a subject that has gripped the public imagination. The mere mention of the word ‘cloning’ sells books, films and even newspapers. Cloning also raises blood pressure and causes panic in equal measure and to an extent unprecedented in recent science.
