Human Cloning

FICTION:

The 1982 cult classic film Blade Runner depicts a dark future in which clones** – called Replicants – are used for, among other things, hard labor, soldiers and sex. They have been genetically engineered to be stronger, faster and sometimes even more intelligent than the humans who created them. After a bloody off-world mutiny, a fail-safe is added to ensure control – a limited life-span of only 4 years.

In the film, a group of renegade replicants search for their creators in an attempt to stop their imminent death, and are pursued by a human – a Blade Runner – whose job is to “retire” them.

 

 
FACT:

We’re not quite to the point of replicating legions of human clones, but we’re certainly on our way.

Tetra is a macaque monkey that was cloned in the year 2000, and is said to be still happy and healthy today. Because macaques are genetically and physiologically similar to humans, they are the most widely used non-human primates in biomedical research. And, they are not the only mammals being successfully cloned. There have also been cloned dogs, cats, cattle, sheep and wolves (at least).

It seems pretty obvious that human cloning is technologically within reach, if not ethically. While human cloning is currently blocked in many countries, it seems naive to think there isn’t someone, somewhere doing some illicit experiments.

 
LEARN MORE:

• What is cloning?
• The First Cloning Superpower
• Animals that have been cloned