SPEAKS OUT

The House of Representatives recently passed the Human
Cloning Prohibition Act, which calls for a ban on all forms of
human cloning. But while some believe the possible risks to human
life justify banning cloning, others believe cloning should be
allowed for research purposes. What do you think?
Anna Chetverikova Third-year Biology and
psychology “If the government puts a ban on it, then
I’m sure people will find ways to go around that and do it
illegally, whereas if they didn’t ban it and it was
government regulated, research would be more controlled and it
wouldn’t be abused as much. A lot of things that used to be
unethical are ethical now, and I think things are going to keep on
progressing in that direction.” Byron Yamada
Fifth-year Biochemistry “When they were discussing the bill,
a lot of (Congressmen) didn’t even know what was going on.
From what I heard, the people that wanted to pass the bill pushed
it early, so they could get a vote early. I just think that they
haven’t done enough research and they don’t know
whether or not they should have such a law. But I agree that
there’s always a limit. You can’t just clone a
person.” Clayton Canning Fourth-year
Anthropology “Cloning an entire human being ““
what’s the benefit of that? I don’t understand why
somebody would do it other than to be able to claim “˜We can
do it’ for the prestige. I don’t see the necessity of
cloning an entire human being ““ but it might have been a
little hasty to call off the research on it. It just kind of creeps
me out that it might even be possible.” Noore
Ali Post-doctorate Pharmicology “It’s more of
an ethical issue, because there’s no scientific reason why it
should be done. There’s no benefit to human kind. There
should be a line where scientists should not really cross. Cloning
organs is fine, but when you take it to the next level and start
cloning human beings, that’s where the line should be
drawn.” Speaks Out compiled by Edward Chiao, Daily Bruin
Senior Staff. Photos by Alice Lam, Daily Bruin Contributor.