Sunday, he 26 1971  THE WASHINGTON POST

By Joshua Zederberg

A Nobel Prize winner, Lederberg is
Projarsot of genetics at the Stanjord
L;nitbreity School of MedicineT    13
I/ THE NATURE of the bond be
tWeen Parents and their children,
not to mention everyone's val,ws abqut
the individual's uniquepias++&# be
changed beyond recogwi@: word-
ing to Harvard pro&sat -,Qmv D.
Watson, in testimony b#or?e *a I&use

new direction

biology, and he suggestr .&+@rict
::;:~i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:
deed, these tiust e contra d `by in-
ternational agree&&, for nb country
has a monopoly on aentific talent and
interest.             2
Watson also rem-t some "be-
lieve the matter is of -ginal impor-
tance now, and that is a red herring
designed to take our minds off our cal-
lous attitudes toward war, poverty, and
racial prejudice." What appears at first'
sight to be a mischievous suggestion
may then be a grand spoof, worthy of
the author of "The Double Helix."
My own stance is' accurately quoted
by Watson:,, !&ederberg, among the
first to tal*-ab&t cloning as a practi-
cal matter, *ow seems <bored with fur-
ther talk . ._. y$ qho@d channel our in-
fluence to the pre~$#io~~ of t;he wide-
scale, irreversible `+qai4 ,to. our ge-
netic material that .)a,.,m
through increasing e
created mutagenic co

serious talk about cloning is essen-
tially. crying wolf when a tiger is al-
readi @s&le the walls."
By ,clqn@ Watson refers to experi-
ments, v ,.pone many times with
        the egg nucleus is re-
          one `taken from a

     #ram a strictly agenetic
standpoint. the rest&. is eauivalent to

making a &&ng-@m a rosebush. By-
passing the sexual'- process means
that the progeny is like an identical
twin-a result that many people co&

a

fuse with making an identical copy `pi
a personality.

this w*yrth making such a fuss
t? Wh+F a plausible comedy one
onuld write*cdbout the diplomatic ma-
neuvering, t$e` investmats in bargain-
ing chips, the confliting &elligenc`e,
reports, in the background d the inter-
national conference ?W&son projects.
And we can again sea / China and
France as probable holdouts against an

egg-nucleus test-ban treaty, believing
that their national interests might be
better served by retaining independent
options.

But there is a heartache behind that
comedy. The world-system would not
know how to reach such an agreement
even if it were in fact necessary for
global survival. Every scientist must
face the ambivalent potential of knowl-
edge as it may be applied in a world
that does not know how to govern it-
self. However, scientists may be overly
self-conscious, for the same potentials
for abuse apply to statesmanship, in-
dustry, even the arts-every human ac-
tivity that maintains the fabric of a na-
tion.

Risk of Confusion

I T WOULD BE AWKWARD to
have to make a case for cloning In
man-we simply do. not have the nec-
essary background of animal experi-
mentation to ktiow what' risks would

be involved, nor to know what human'
need would ever be served by& Some

ence in Watson's conea
will break loose" just

I)urge the scientific literature. and <&e

iex<books, of
edne? Da wa censor

o&r countries? Should we dikoura

that a totalitarian regime

ents than the


As to surrogate motherhood, Watson  ities of. such a prospect. 2, it after all

is concerned with more than coercion,
or the hire of a wet-nurse's uteri
services. He fears that "the
meaninglessness of the lives o
women would be sufficient cau

their willingness." Is he decrying em-
bryology or sexist oppression? In
proper libertarian style, women may
defend their right to be diverted how-
ever it suits them. But perhaps they
will also support legislation that would
punish any initiation of pregnancy
without a woman's willing consent to
the pregnancy. Most of the prosecu-
tions would have nothing to do with
transplanted egga.

ov##$&?&owded world.-
In `fact, studies of separated twins
s w
I!!  that most personality traits owe
out as much to variations in environ-
+ ent as to variations in heredity, even
within the confines of lower-middle-
class white culture. It follows that
human variety among cultures, across
national and ethnic boundaries, is
mainly of environmental origin today,
and would not be profoundly altered

subject of frivolous or irresponsibls
whimsey. For one thing it muat be pre-
ceded by a large body of investigative
work on other animals - and the auc-
cessful cloning of a mouse, though
overdue by some of my own prophe-
ties, has yet to be reported. During the
interval that such laboratory findings
appear and are critically reviewed, we

onder whether there are any
human applications of such
and the context in which

Do we really need any new law to
cope with the fantasied chances for
abuse? Surely no court would enforce
a prenatal contract that required giv-

idafter it was born. The
$haps clear up the confu-

sion that kkn@ns in some states about

RUSIONS do  worry

purists could be realized, and if Hitler
had had a scientific view of race, he
might have promulgated the method.
But nothing would be gained toward
forfending such an abuse by stopping
biological research in democratic coun-
tries today. Nor would there have been
greater advantage in preserving the
false doctrines of Nazi race-biology or
Stalin@ `riysenkoism at the expense of
our :moder% knowledge of DNA. Fu-
ture ,&ants would have tortured their
cal$t@s less "scientifically," but not
less vietously. I'

F w, p&le, nevertheless, fall to be
rep abur; $y `the idea of a population of
xerocbpies of g particular genetic type,
as might result from the renucleation
of a harem of eggs. The force of the
metaphor has little to do with the real-

even if the gene pool of the species
were narrowed to many fewer types.

This argument is not to advocate a
genetic xerocopy process; It does sug-
gest that the cloning metaphor con-
fuses the real s-of indi-

viduality. The n@i
parody of the epji$f@*
parents today hati o#,S-heid

Watson's specific
among several orde
are nevertheless a
tion about relatln

definition written by politicians. There
are many matters that must be left to
individual conscience, and the moral
sanctions of an informed community.
At some point, a responsible physician
must give counsel as well as provide
treatment to a patient in his charge.

There are indeed tigers within our
walls that deserve more immediate at-
tention from our lawmakers. We can
prevent moral dilemmas about how to
remwe genetic defects by Paying more
attention to preventive environmental
hygiene. A scandalously,,small number
of the additives ~e~.~pour into our

lieu-in drugs,

There is a pa$i&ical d$iiger that

terference - just as the actual polic-
ing of pornography is a serious threat
to v&id free speech.

On the other hand, the renucleation
of human eggs cannot be regarded as a   dren!