He showed some understanding of the subject, and the possible implications of his decision.

I am less happy with the near-unanimous decision, here in the States, to ban human cloning. The Italian team that plans to do two hundred human clones is doing so for childless couples. If Barb and I couldn't have had kids, and someone had said to me,

"Hey, I could implant a clone of Barb into her womb..."

Hey, I would have gone for it....in a second. Adoption is fine, but there is a sort of cool feeling in knowing that a child is part-you and part-the one you love. If it can't be part-you, then the child being wholly the one you love is the next best thing....

The clue is to remember that cloning is just a process of making twins, even if the twins are seperated by decades. Clones should be treated as full human beings, with all the legal rights of any other human being. As long as that is remembered, than there would be no real problem with cloning.

You couldn't grow a clone just to use it for organs for someone else. The clone would have rights too.

Too bad others can't see it that way.

While our lawmakers sat down to deliberate and to clamp down the future we might have, other forms of entertainment take it as a matter of course...

So we sat down and watched SAMURAI JACK, an excellent new cartoon from Cartoon Network by the same guy who created DEXTER'S LABORATORY and THE POWER PUFF GIRLS. In it Jack met a group of genetically-superior dogs---so superior, that they couldn't remember their origins, as genetically-improved animals. They talked, stood upright, and went on archeological digs.

That's coming too. All the fantasies about anthromorphic animals, from Anansi the Spider and Coyote the Trickster, to Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, will come true.

I can't wait.

(I highly recommend the cartoon, BTW.)

Meanwhile, even conservatives are changing their stand on stem cell research, in the hopes that Reagen might be cured of his Alzheimer's...that their leader can be rescued from the mental fog he's in.

I doubt if it will help autism, but there's a chance that someday they may discover the cause of it---that someday they might be able to actually cure it.

How would I feel if Eric actually started talking like a normal boy? How many embryoes would I sacrifice if I thought that was a realistic possibility?

I don't know.

Don't tempt me.

I don't blame Nancy Reagen or Christopher Reeve a bit. They're desperate, they're in need---- and see a chance. They're grasping at it, like a man in quicksand will grab anything to pull himself out.

In a hundred years from now, what will we be like?

How will we have improved ourselves?

How much will our knowledge of DNA and the human genome change ourselves? For thousands of years we have virtually mastered the environment around us. What will it be like when we can change living things---including ourselves---at will?

What will it be like when Big Business takes an interest in it? When kids can be born with the MacDonald's logo on their forehead, for a healthy subsidy for their college education?

Cells altered for profit. Oh brave new world...