fwd from InfoBeat News

["Jean-Francois Avon" <jf_avon@citenet.net>]

Reading the forwarded article below, I couldn't help but say "But of course!".

Irrelevant from the moral qualms of certain people, it should not come as a surprizing piece of news.  

What _exactly_ do they mean by "more time to consider the implications" ?  

The fact is that research using primal foetus cells holds trememdous potential for curing diseases linked to the aging process and thus, extending the life potential of human adults.  AAMOF, I saw on TV no later than last night on TLC some biologist who said that very soon, the knowledge of molecular biology and genetics could increase our life expectancy to 150 - 170 years of age by reversing the physical aging process.

Wouldn't it be nice to live to 100 in a 35 or 45 years old body and reach the physical state of a present 80 years old not before we reach 150?  Kinda cool...

Just TOO cool for the social engineers though...  Research must be driven underground and be made available only to certain people or their plans will go haywire.

The situation was described almost totally accurately by Ira Levin in in his Sci-Fi novel _This_Perfect_Day_ (out of print).

_This_Perfect_Day_ is about statism, computers and databases, population control, offshore haven, fight for freedom, disinformation, and all the nicety that statism has brought to a neighboorhood near you.

_This_Perfect_Day_ is very much like Orwell's 1984, albeit for one thing: 
while Orwell leaves the reader with a sense of doom and gloom, saying that if ever we get to that point, all efforts to regain freedom will be futile, Levin leaves the reader with the powerfull feeling that no matter what, something could be done about it... and that it is possible to succeed.

Is is why _This_Perfect_Day_ was never as widely publicized as 1984 although many people consider it better?

Ciao

jfa



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*** Britain bans human embryo cloning

LONDON (AP) - The government rejected expert advice and banned the
cloning of human embryos Thursday for any kind of medical research,
saying more time is needed to consider the implications. The
decision, announced in Parliament after months of deliberations, came
as a surprise. The move meant embryos may no longer be cloned for
infertility and congenital disease research. The government had been
expected to follow a recommendation by its advisors that Britain
should allow continued research into the cloning of human embryos -
provided they were destroyed after a maximum of 14 days - for the
treatment of disease, while maintaining a ban on cloning to create
babies. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560055896-ac1
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