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After nearly a year of emotional arguments in Congress but no new federal laws, the national debate over the future of human cloning has shifted to the states. Six states have already banned cloning in one form or another, and this year alone 38 anticloning measures were introduced in 22 states.
The resulting patchwork of laws, people on all sides of the issue say, complicates a nationwide picture already clouded by scientific and ethical questions over whether and how to restrict cloning or to ban it altogether.
Since 1997, when scientists announced the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, the specter of cloned babies, infants that are in essence genetic carbon copies of adults, has loomed large in the public psyche and in the minds of lawmakers.
Today, there is widespread agreement that cloning for reproduction is unsafe and should be banned. Now, the debate has shifted away from the ethics of baby-making and toward the morality of cloning embryos for their cells and tissues, which might be used to treat diseases. The controversy pits religious conservatives and abortion opponents, who regard embryos as nascent human life, against patients groups, scientists and the biotechnology industry.
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一年来，国会对于克隆未来的争论异常激烈，但却未催生相应法律的诞生。现在，这一争论已转移到各州。其中，有6个州已经禁止任何形式的克隆。仅今年一年，就有22个州采取了高达38项的反克隆措施。
有关人士称，对于是否以及如何限制克隆，或是全面禁止克隆，涉及诸多的科学和伦理问题。 所以，相应的立法修宪问题变得更加复杂。
1997年，科学家宣布第一只哺乳动物克隆羊多莉的诞生。从此，这就在公众和立法者心里蒙上阴影。这是因为科隆生物实际上是成年生物的副本。
现在，人们达成共识的是，为再生产而进行的克隆是不安全的，因此应该禁止。当前，人们争论的焦点已不再局限于克隆婴儿的伦理问题。人们的注意已转移到对胚胎的科隆上来，尽管由之产生的组织和细胞有助于治疗很多疾病。因为保守的宗教人士和堕胎反对者认为胚胎是早期的生命形式，他们自然与患者、科学家和生物工业站在争论的两边。 |
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发表于 2016-7-11 16:58:28