Overview: The potential power of embryonic and fetal inter-species mixtures became clear about a decade ago in a series of dramatic experiments in which small sections of brains from developing quails were taken and transplanted into the developing brains of chickens. The resulting chickens exhibited vocal trills and head bobs unique to quails, proving that the transplanted parts of the brain contained the neural circuitry for quail calls.

Amid the current debate over cloning not nearly enough attention is being paid to the children who may be produced through cloning. When attention is paid to the clones themselves, often people ask: Are clones human beings? Are they of the same moral status as the rest of us? Do they have souls?

The American Medical Association (AMA)--the largest professional organization of medical doctors in the United States--announced in late June its support for human cloning for research purposes.¹ The AMA's house of delegates also passed a resolution containing guidelines for physicians who themselves wish to harvest stem cells from cloned human embryos for the purpose of medical research.² This formal decision places the nation's largest medical association in the camp of those who believe it is acceptable to create life for t

Debates over bioethical issues necessarily involve people from diverse circles. Scientists, health care professionals, lawyers, clergy, and representatives from other disciplines join formally trained bioethicists in assessing the appropriateness of various forays within medicine and biotechnology. It is my hypothesis that the way scientists think is often so fundamentally different that the "answers" to bioethical issues offered by the non-scientific community are perceived as (at best) only minimally relevant by those who are actually pursuing the research in question.