A mailing list devoted to discussions on the manifold biological,social, psychological, political consequences the new technology that makes human cloning possible entails

Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was an English novelist, essayist, critic, and poet, grandson of Thomas and brother of Julian, born in Godalming, Surrey, and educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford. He worked on various periodicals and published four books of verse before the appearance of his first novel, Crome Yellow (1921). The novels Antic Hay (1923) and Point Counter Point (1928), both of which illustrate the nihilistic temper of the 1920s, and Brave New World (1932), an ironic vision of a future utopia, established Huxley's fame. During the 1920s he lived largely in Italy and France. He immigrated to the United States in 1937. Among his more than 45 books are the volumes of essays Jesting Pilate (1926), Ends and Means (1937), Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1956), Brave New World Revisited (1958), and Literature and Science (1963). Other novels include Eyeless in Gaza (1936), After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939), Ape and Essence (1948), and Island (1962). Huxley also wrote on science, philosophy, and social criticism. Important nonfiction works include The Art of Seeing (1932), The Perennial Philosophy (1946), and The Devils of Loudon (1952). The Doors of Perception (1954) and its sequel Heaven and Hell (1956) deal with Huxley's experiences with hallucinogenic drugs.

What is a clone?

A clone is an organism, or group of organisms, derived from another organism by an asexual (nonsexual) reproductive process. The word has been applied to cells as well as to organisms, so that a group of cells stemming from a single cell is also called a clone. Usually the members of a clone are identical in their inherited characteristics—that is, in their genes —except for any differences caused by mutation. Identical twins, for example, who originate by the division of a single fertilized egg, are members of a clone; whereas nonidentical twins, who derive from two separate fertilized eggs, are not. Besides the organisms known as procaryotes (the bacteria and blue-green algae), a number of other simple organisms such as most protozoans, many other algae, and some yeasts, also reproduce by cloning, as do certain higher organisms, for example, flatworms and plants such as the dandelion. Through recent advances of genetic engineering, scientists can isolate an individual gene (or group of genes) from one organism and grow it in another organism belonging to a different species. The species chosen as a recipient is usually one that can reproduce asexually, such as a bacterium or yeast. Thus it is able to produce a clone of organisms, or of cells, that all contain the same foreign gene, or genes. Because bacteria, yeasts, and other cultured cells can multiply rapidly, these methods make possible the production of many copies of a particular gene. The copies can then be isolated and used for the purposes of study (for example, to investigate the chemical nature and structure of the gene) or for the purposes of medicine and commerce (for example, with a view to making large quantities of a useful gene-product such as insulin, interferon, and growth hormone). This technique is called cloning, because it uses clones of organisms or cells. It has great economic and medical potential and is the subject of active research. Identical-twin animals may be produced by cloning as well. An embryo in the early stage of development is removed from the uterus and split, then each separate part is placed in a surrogate uterus. Mammals such as mice and sheep have been produced in this way. Another development has been the discovery that a whole nucleus, containing an entire set of chromosomes, can be taken from a cell and injected into a fertilized egg whose own nucleus has been removed. The division of the egg brings about the division of the nucleus, and the descendant nuclei can, in their turn, be injected into eggs. After several such transfers, the nuclei may become capable of directing the development of the eggs into complete new organisms genetically identical to the organism from which the original nucleus was taken. This cloning technique is thus, in theory, capable of producing large numbers of genetically identical individuals.