Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning

Nussbaum and Sunstein have collected a comprehensive set of essays on the implications of cloning, which has not been attempted with humans as of this writing, but almost surely will be within a few years. The editors include Ian Wilmut's original research paper reporting the existence of Dolly, the cloned sheep, as well as ethical analysis papers by popular science writers such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins. Four fiction pieces round out the collection. Opinion pieces on topics ranging from the soul of a clone to clones raised for body parts are the most interesting essays in the bunch. In the horror-scenario category, Andrea Dworkin takes the position that in a world where cloning is possible, men will clone only compliant women, at last gaining the control over reproduction they've always wanted. (Dworkin ignores the fact that no gene for compliance has yet been isolated.) Questions of nature versus nurture will presumably be answered in the brave new world of cloning, and many of the writers in Clones and Clones imagine the ramifications of finding out how much our lives are predestined by our DNA. Read this book before you donate your cells to the local lab. --Therese Littleton