Culture and Cloning

Jonah Goldberg has an interesting bit on cloning and its cultural effects in NRO. Basically, his argument is that we need to have a ban on the procedure until the science and the culture catches up to where it need to be. Along the way, he trots out everything from Car Talk, to F.A. Hayek, to Edmund Burke. As always, it’s an interesting, if windy intellectual ride.

I’m not sure what to make of Goldberg’s argument. I agree that tradition is often the glue that hold society together – but the libertarians have a point. Unless we’re willing to confront the issue of cloning head on, neither the culture nor the science will fully be able to grapple with the cloning conundrum. In the end, I think that cloning and related science will go forward regardless, but society must also be mindful of the consequences of such technology.