Who's Afraid of Human Cloning?

Gregory E Pence Rowman & Littlefield, £9.95, pp 174 ISBN 0 8476 8782 1

The debate over human cloning (specifically, nuclear somatic transfer) has been dominated by the doom merchants who usually gather round the sites of major scientific breakthroughs. By making an ethical case against laws banning nuclear somatic transfers, Pence swims against the tide.

His first swipe is at the religious right and the US National Bioethical Advisory Commission. He finds that the opponents of in vitro fertilisation are out in force again—this time against nuclear somatic transfers. As their earlier predictions turned out to be so wrong, he wonders why they have been invited back by the commission to deliberate over human cloning research.

Pence goes on to discard major misconceptions that commonly arise when human cloning is debated. Ian Wilmut (of Dolly fame) came out against …