Human Cloning Is a Gift to Ourselves

Re “First Test of the Biotech Age: Human Cloning,” Commentary, March 6: William Kristol and Jeremy Rifkin articulate the consensus of a very influential and reactionary movement, spanning left and right, that wants to stop human progress and substantial improvement of our species where it counts most: the human genome.

I too believe in the intrinsic value of human life, so much so that I want it better for myself, for my neighbors and for those who will follow us in centuries to come. Genetic engineering, by producing healthier, stronger, smarter people, affirms that intrinsic value of life.

People in the reactionary camp contend that children are, to use Kristol and Rifkin’s words, “a gift bestowed by God or a beneficent nature.” What kind of a “gift” is a child with Down syndrome? What kind of an endowment is brain and brawn that will never earn more than the minimum wage, condemning tens of millions to poverty?

The greatest gift is the one we can give to ourselves in the form of “engineered” reproductions, not uniform in appearance, but universally excellent. The question is, do we have the wisdom and the political and moral will to say, “Go for it”?

Robert P. Sechler

Cypress