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Hello All, I keep repeating here that my Father died in 1999 from PD and why I am still here apart from him, is that now that I am doing my PhD in Sociology, I have chosen to work on Biotechnology (Stem cells and cloning) and Social Development. I have been reading several things on the question of ethics in Stem cells. My opinion is this. There is a difference between Morality and Ethics. Morality is tradition bound. It is where you have no power to contest the ideas. It is the word of God/Church or the State or the King in earlier times. Morality was those ideas which these 3 called Law and Truth. Ethics has to be different. Ethics is not the universal truth or law. The beauty of ethics is that you can contest it. You have to constantly redifine ethics becuase everyone is equal in our world. We are all not the SAME but EQUALS. That is why we are arguing about cloning....because it deals with Ethics and not morality. It is not a matter where those who are pro cloing are immoral or anti-God or "too rationalistic." Just as those who are anti cloning, are not stupid, nor unaware of "real" merits of cloning. The basic difference between Ethics and Morality is that of CHOICE. Our society is different from that of the earlier times because today we have choice. We decide what we want and what we don't. Common people are not politicians in their lives. People can change their ideas and go back and forth between different positions. Politicians unfortunately have to take one stand by which they have to agree and live for, for some time at least. We can constantly change because we have a choice. So for me, an argument like "God doesn't want cloning", is not too helpful. By arguing that God doesn't want cloning, in effect you are arguing that God is okay with people suffering from Parkinsons. I am not sure I want our God to be seen as causing pain to us. In any case when you bring in religion, you are removing Choice from me. I can't argue with God and effectively it kills all debate. For me a better idea is to create an environment where we can move ahead in a controlled manner. Any time we feel that things are moving too fast, We have the choice to slow down or leave research there. Choice deals with dignity. Dignity is what we all are looking for in any case, even in our suffering. Ok enough ideas for one night. Take care Lavanya ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn