Human clones: Hellraisers or angels?

According to leading Russian geneticists, at the present level of development of biomedical technologies, we can produce a human from a single cell. Another question is whether this method of propagation is acceptable from the moral and religious point of view - a cloned person would have no parents. And could an artificial creature be free?

The question of whether human asexual reproduction at the present stage of scientific development was possible was responded in the affirmative by Alexander Sobolev at the 8th Conference "Science. Philosophy. Religion." Sobolev is head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Intracellular Transport of the Institute of Gene Biology, RAS, Professor of the Department of Biophysics of the Biological Faculty of Moscow State University, Doctor of Biological Sciences." The Conference was held at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research of Dubna, and organized with the support of the Fund of Holy Apostle St. Andrew the First Called.

According to the scientist, "the issue of human cloning is ethical rather than biological, and is unlikely to be the subject of discussion in the coming years."...