Flooding the clone zone

Financial Times: S Korea�s �giant step� in human cell cloning

Scientists have cloned embryos for the first time from patients with serious diseases and injuries. The research at Seoul National University in South Korea demonstrates the principle of �therapeutic cloning� producing stem cells genetically identical to the patient, which could repair any damaged or diseased tissue.

Two entries ago, I pointed out that Francis Fukuyama's ideas about limits on third-world pharmaceutical trials, reported in the Washington Post, were largely contradicted by a story running the same day in USA Today.

Now, his prediction that "the number of people who are going to want to take the risk [of human cloning] is going to be awfully small" has been shown as similarly naive by South Korea's enthusiastic progress in therapeutic human cloning.

Events haven't just overtaken Fukuyama, they've completely lapped him.

Technorati Tags: cloning, bioethics, fukuyama, asiarising

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