To: extropians@extropy.org Subject: Re: FYI: Final Cloning Position Paper (fwd) References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: postmaster@extropy.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org Status: RO X-Status: Ken Meyering wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 18:07:43 -0800 > From: Phil Bereano > To: purefood@aol.com, biotech-wg@igc.apc.org, gentech@tribe.ping.de > Subject: Final Cloning Position Paper > Resent-Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 04:02:35 +0100 > Resent-From: gentech@tribe.ping.de > Seeing this, I felt compelled to respond to Wendy and Phil as follows: Having just read your manifesto hoping to ban human cloning, I felt I must respond, in the name of human rights. What you are proposing to do is to deny humans everywhere the ability to express in the purest way that characteristic which is most notable about our species: our ability to create, to reproduce, even when accidents of nature stand in the way. I am a libertarian, and as such hold that all that is right and good in this world derives from respect for the concept that all power is derived from the individual, that all rights originate from the individual. To support any law, policy, regulation, or ideal which opposes the rights of the individual is to denigrate the dignitiy of the individual human in the most profound way. For this reason, rather than acting in fear as you have apparently done, I ask you to explore the possibility of proposing public policies which will achieve the apparent goals of your "ban" while at the same time maximizing individual human rights. That every human has the right to freely procreate is recognised in all civilized societies (which inferrs attendant responsibilities as well). All civilized societies also recognize common concepts of intellectual property, notably concepts like the patent, copyright, and trademarks. Many people around the world have debated for several decades on the subject of genetic information and intellectual property, especially in the area of patents. Your organization seems to be opposed to the potential for corporate abuse of cloning technology to enslave humans by the patenting of DNA sequences. In this I applaud you. How you wish to go about it though, frankly scares me even more. At least in the marketplace, the public can vote with its money on the business practices of corporations. In too many countries, no such competition is allowed in the area of politics and government. I fear even greater the possibility of government monopolies of power abusing this technology in secret than I do in corporations which must compete in the marketplace for public approval. Due to this, I propose that your organization pursue a policy that recognizes that 1) only human individuals can make claims of intellectual property involving DNA, 2) each individual posesses primary and majority ownership of his or her genetic intellectual property present in his or her own DNA, which cannot be assigned, waived, leased or sold. 2) each individual posesses secondary and guardian ownership of all other individuals posessing copies, in whole (clone) or in part (natural fertilization) until those individuals attain adult legal status, or if the state intervenes in the interest of the derived individual, as is now done in juvinile court, or by various departments of education, health and human services, etc. Each derived generation, in whole or in part is to be regarded in the same manner as "next of kin" are legally today in natural born families. 3) These intellectual property rights infer responsibilities of stewardship, which if neglected or abused shall constitute severe human rights violations punishable under expansions of current law. By becoming proponents of this sort of policy, we establish primary political ownership of ANY sort of reproduction or creation of ANY sort of intellectual property in the hands of the individual, who is free to choose as is his or her right how and when and where to exercise those rights, without violating those of others. THus no government, nor any corporation can ever commit such abuse without the expressed approval of each and every individual involved. We reinforce the concept that political power flows from the individual, and governments and corporations weild power only as delegated by free individuals. By tying these rights together, an assault on one aspect is an assault on the whole. -- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Website: http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH) ------------------------------------------------------------ Transhumanist, Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian ------------------------------------------------------------ #!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL @k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_ ]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256; &S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}