News that scientists had extracted stem cells from cloned human
embryos revived the ethical debate over CLONING HUMANS--a debate
TIME explored in 1993, when human embryos were first duplicated.
Once it was out, the news that human embryos had been cloned
flew around the world with the speed of sound bites bouncing off
satellites ... It was the start of the fiercest scientific
debate about medical ethics since the birth of the first test-
tube baby 15 years ago. A line had been crossed. A taboo broken.
A Brave New World of cookie-cutter humans, baked and bred to
order, seemed, if not just around the corner, then just over the
horizon. Ethicists called up nightmare visions of baby farming,
of clones cannibalized for spare parts. Policymakers pointed to
the vacuum in U.S. bioethical leadership. Critics decried the
commercialization of fertility technology and protesters took to
the streets, calling for an immediate ban on human-embryo
cloning. Scientists steeled themselves against the backlash they
feared would o