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HUMAN CLONING--YES!
Aug. 2, 2001
MARINA DEL REY, CA--On Tuesday, a majority in the House of Representatives voted to prohibit all human cloning, even for crucial stem-cell research.

"The opposition to human cloning springs from something primordial and irrational: the fear of the unknown," said Dr. Harry Binswanger, a senior writer of the Ayn Rand Institute. "It is the fear captured in the catch-phrase: 'We can't play God!' But why can't we? We can and we must."

Dr. Binswanger noted that "a surgeon 'plays God' whenever he removes a cancer or an infected appendix rather than letting the patient die. We 'play God' anytime we use our intelligence to improve the 'natural' course of events. It is man's nature to 'play God' by reshaping matter to produce the food, shelter, tools, cars, power stations--and biomedical advances--that sustain and enhance our existence. Not to 'play God' in this way means to abandon the struggle for human life and submit uncomplainingly to whatever happens."

"The House should have voted as the Senate did several years ago in upholding the right of free scientific inquiry," said Dr. Binswanger. "At the threshold of a wide range of earth-shaking biomedical advances, we must not let irrational fears of the new slow progress in the battle to enhance and extend human life."

Ayn Rand Institute senior fellow Dr. Onkar Ghate is available for interviews on this topic.

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