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When Einstein said, "It has become appallingly obvious that our 
technology has exceeded our humanity" he was addressing the advent of 
the use of the great energy locked inside the atom for the potential 
destruction of mankind.

Physics at that time gave us a great conundrums. However, dealing with 
the conundrums of nuclear physics is child's play compared to that the 
biologist have shoved front and center. The cloning has been a natural 
technological evolution since man first unraveled the structure of the 
DNA/RNA molecule in the 60's -a feat that ironically based base on 
foundations laid by Einstein that led to the development of the use of 
Xray diffraction as one of the main tools in understanding the DNA/RNA 
molecule. .

The potential benefits of cloning technology to aid mankind are stunning 
- the potential for abuses are also stunning. I sure hope our ethical 
system is sufficient as we traverse the long and potential slippery 
slope. One thing for sure is like any technology - it is not the science 
or the technology that is the issue it is the ability of the society to 
use it for good.

I don't know if cloning horses is good, bad or indifferent - I suspect 
more indifferent than anything else. It will, however, add to the 
knowledge base. Is that good? This whole question is a question of 
ethics - not science.

Truman

Alison Farrin wrote:

> Based on what argument?
> They are still horses.  They are the exact genetic material that is 
> registerable in the original.  They are not the same animal - genetic 
> expression is affected by fetal development.
>
> Regular horses differ in environment and training.  This is not a valid 
> argument not to accept clones for the same reason.
> You said that cloned animal have serious health flaws.  So do regular animals.  
> We alleviate that by having lots of horses to experiment with and breed out or 
> manage things like CID or HYPP.  They only way to achieve that in cloned horses 
> is too make the cost of creating them cheap enough to have lots of them to work 
> out the problems.
>
> Let there be light.  The more knowledge we have, the more opportunity we have.
> Every breed organization and equine sport should embrace cloning.  Not doing so 
> appears to me to be sticking one's head in the sand.
>
>
> Alison A. Farrin
>
>
>  


--

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what 
we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."  - 
Bertrand Russell




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