Social & Moral Issues Ethical Issues

CLONING, THE NEXT HOLOCAUST? Manipulation and experimentation at the cost of human rights is perfectly legal in South Africa... EMBARGO: Immediate Release Enquiries: Martus de Wet Date: 30 June 2003 Tel: (031) 7640443 More Information: www.dfl.org.za Reports of scientists combining human and dog genes, glow-in-the-dark monkeys and other distortions of life are cause for concern. Scientific knowledge is developed through trial and error. However, if trials produce errors that are disfigured humans, destined to short and painful lives, has experimentation gone too far? It will not be the doctors, scientist or bio-ethicists, but the general public and their opinion that will ultimately determine government policy and law on these issues. To the layman, the subject of cloning may seem foreign and isolated to the scientific community, but this is a dangerous assumption. Let us draw a parallel with nuclear energy. In the infancy of nuclear physics, no laws or restrictions were placed while the general public remained blissfully ignorant, thinking that this new science would never affect them. Accidents occurred and weapons of mass destruction soon held the world in terror. South Africa currently has no law regarding cloning. This means that manipulation and experimentation at the cost of human rights is perfectly legal. Due to this, Doctors For Life International will conduct the National Conference on Medical Ethics in Cape Town between 30 July and 1st of August, focusing on cloning. Although it is targeted at the biological and medical arena, it is open to the general public. It is imperative to be informed and contribute to the formation of laws that retain human dignity, before a new branch of science becomes an evil. We have a great challenge to respond correctly to this, greater than our parents and grandparent faced. Unlike the Nazi regime or the nuclear weapons race, we are not asked to meet the threat of indisputable evil, but to use this new knowledge to prevent genetic holocaust. Doctors For Life International represents 900 doctors and specialists across the globe. Contact us for more information about the National Conference on Medical Ethics at 031 764 0443 and www.dfl.org.za _______________________________________________ Pleased read our disclaimer   Back to Social Issues