"The Virtual Child"

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how Lee Silver, a geneticist at Princeton University and author of "The Virtual Child", sees the cloned sheep, "Dolly", as only a frightening precursor as to what could happen to the American family as a result of human cloning. It discusses the views that Silver holds about the future of family life if people are allowed to clone children.

From the Paper:

"These individuals who design their children as replicas or super children rather than as relatives by genetic chance will fundamentally upset the balance of nature, physically and psychologically. Lee Silver's essay upon "The Virtual Child", is from a larger work, entitled Remaking Eden. This plays upon the notion of life as blissful ignorance in Eden. In Silver's view, despite his own academic prowess, the gaining of knowledge is a fall from grace, or at least as a dangerous thing to be feared. His pervasive fear is marked throughout the entire essay. It would have been better, Silver suggests, if we had never known how to clone, despite the potential benefits the science could give in terms of regenerating organs. The potential dangers are too great, he states, if the technology is used to its ultimate extent and possibilities. (516-517)"

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