Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning [Paperback]

Martha C. Nussbaum (Editor), Cass R. Sunstein (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 1999

"These two dozen essays by experts ranging from Stephen Jay Gould to Andrea Dworkin are an excellent guide to the post-Dolly world." --Chicago Tribune, Choice Selections of 1998

Human cloning is a prospect the contributors to Clones and Clones view with varying degrees of alarm, calm, ambivalence, and not a little humor. Ranging from psychoanalyst Adam Phillips's case study of a child whose confusion of "cloning" and "clothing" expresses our mixed desire and terror of sameness, to Stephen Jay Gould's and Richard Dawkins's "characteristically pithy and intelligent" essays (Civilization); from William Ian Miller's analysis of the queasiness the subject elicits in many of us, to Martha Nussbaum's witty and elegiac fantasy of the cloning of a lost lover-this superb collection limns our beliefs and concerns about what it means to be human. The writers here, says the San Diego Union-Tribune, "comprise an eclectic group, but their observations on the science and ethics of cloning, how it might fit into and affect human society and what the future might bring are just the sort of thinking that . . . we need more of." Praise for Clones and Clones: "A worthy exploration of a discomfiting topic." - Foreign Affairs "Greatly aid[s] the cloning debate." - Washington Post "The spectrum of authors and their varying perspectives in fact and fiction are assets to anyone who hopes to understand this broad issue and its vast cultural implications." - Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nussbaum and Sunstein have collected a comprehensive set of essays on the implications of cloning, which has not been attempted with humans as of this writing, but almost surely will be within a few years. The editors include Ian Wilmut's original research paper reporting the existence of Dolly, the cloned sheep, as well as ethical analysis papers by popular science writers such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins. Four fiction pieces round out the collection. Opinion pieces on topics ranging from the soul of a clone to clones raised for body parts are the most interesting essays in the bunch. In the horror-scenario category, Andrea Dworkin takes the position that in a world where cloning is possible, men will clone only compliant women, at last gaining the control over reproduction they've always wanted. (Dworkin ignores the fact that no gene for compliance has yet been isolated.) Questions of nature versus nurture will presumably be answered in the brave new world of cloning, and many of the writers in Clones and Clones imagine the ramifications of finding out how much our lives are predestined by our DNA. Read this book before you donate your cells to the local lab. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

This compendium?two-thirds original, the remainder reprint?of essays, short fiction and poetry on the headlining topic of cloning offers a variety of insights ranging from an anti-male screed by Andrea Dworkin to a wide-ranging and subtle tract on the mythopoetic antecedents of today's technology from religion scholar Wendy Doniger. With 24 contributors in five categories?science; commentary; ethics and religion; law and public policy; fiction and fantasy?including three presentations by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, there is a predictable unevenness in the quality of the writing. Editors Nussbaum (The Fragility of Goodness) and Sunstein (Free Markets and Social Justice) provide two of the more interesting pieces, the former a short story and the latter an exegesis on the legal implications of cloning. Gifted essayist Stephen Jay Gould offers one of his patented mazelike gems that entertains as well as informs. Poet C.K. Williams provides a provocative and troubling prose poem that conjures up monstrous images from ancient mythology to Freud. This book establishes a platform from which the general reader may move into specific areas of concern on the controversial subject of cloning. The spectrum of authors and their varying perspectives in fact and fiction are assets to anyone who hopes to understand this broad issue and its vast cultural implications. Editor, Alane Mason.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (September 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393320014
• ISBN-13: 978-0393320015
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,147,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, appointed in Law, Philosophy, and Divinity.

Author photo by Robin Holland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Start in the Field, August 6, 2001

By 

Lewis D. Eigen (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning (Paperback)

This is a terrific basic explanation of the science, ethics, politics and sociology of human cloning. It is a collection of essays, most of which have been published elsewhere, but pulled together in a coherent and thorough form.

The volume is easy to understand with little or no biological or medical background required. Unlike most volumes on the subject, it includes some excellent examples of fiction on cloning which in many ways clarify many concepts better than the factual sections. There are some wonderful quirky concepts covered by the different essays ranging from an analysis of cloning from the point of gays and lesbians and an imaginative Supreme Court Opinion rendered on a hypotehical case of an individual's right to clone. In a Rashoman-like manner two separate opinions are given, one where the Supreme Court protects the individuals right to clone and a second where it upholds society's right to restrict cloning.

The essays are written by a range of the famous such as Stephan J. Gould to unknowns. But the quality of the material is generally very high and always understandable for the layman.

If anyone wants to start thinking and learning about cloning, this would be my recommendation as a starting point.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Jargon filled academic articles with lame attempt at fiction, September 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning (Hardcover)

The most interesting chapter in this book was by Eric and Richard Posner and their attempt to apply economic reasoning to explain what type of people will engage in cloning. However, the self selection arguments about what those who clone reveal to others by cloning seem a little difficult to believe. Many of the other chapters, such as the one by Andrea Dworkin, are bizarre. Does anyone really think that the major problem with cloning is that men will cloning submissive women whom they can dominate? This is pure emotionalism. No evidence is offered that the most submissive women are currently the most prized as wives so why do we think that this will change when cloning is allowed. More importantly, even if you cloned a submissive women, how can you be sure that you will be the one that she will marry? I realize that these are difficult topics, but, unfortunately, too many of the chapters were argued on the emotional level with no evidence to back up their assertions one way or the other.

Epstein's chapter made a strong case for not regulating the procedure, though more of a discussion on whether regulation will ultimately even be possible would have been useful.

The chapters at the end of the book are a lame attempt at fiction. I concede that it is an interesting way of dealing with issues that one can only speculate about and if they had been well done I would have enjoyed it, but these essays fall short.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm glad I'm not a clone, December 18, 1998

By 

Peter Werner "peterwerner4" (Essingen, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning (Hardcover)

This book is a must for all those who want to inform themselves about this problem, which will mark the history of our near future. It is not highly scientific because at the moment we can only speculate what kind of impact cloning of humans may have on us - once it is allowed. If it is not allowed, it will be done - because what someone thinks will be carried out. It has been like that throughout our scientific history. (Otto Hahn dropped the idea of the atomic bomb - and someone else built it.) We will have to face human clones in the very near future. And we want to know how we will face this new situation. And this is what this book is about. It gives you a variety of impulses and, of course, it has to be highly speculative. We simply cannot analyze a situation that we do not have in reality. The stories at the end of the book are not very good, but they are a good try to interest readers that have difficulties with facts only. Science fiction literature would have provided far better stories. I am glad this book was written, and I'm glad I'm not a clone.