Vernon Ehlers: “for years the American public, and humans in general, have been fascinated with the possibility of creating human life…”

“for years the American public, and humans in general, have been fascinated with the possibility of creating human life by other than the natural means. This has given rise to stories such as Frankenstein, the attendant movies, and other horror stories related to that. This past week fears reached a new height when we discovered that British researchers had cloned a sheep. Immediately cries arose about the dangers of doing this, the British Government has threatened to withdraw funding for that research, et cetera. I would like to address the issue of cloning in general but more specifically the issue of human cloning. As my colleagues may be aware, I do have a scientific background, although not in the life sciences. I have to say that I am not the least surprised that we were able to clone a sheep and will not be the least surprised if someday we will be able to clone a human being. However, I strongly believe it should not be done.”