… Cloning can
generate living beings; however the clone’s genetic information is full of
errors. Clones can appear the same as the original, however the clone’s
internal structure is full of genetic defects. Professor Ian Wilmut, of The
Roslin Institute in Scotland, and father of the renowned Dolly-the sheep
(born in 1996), years later acknowledged "that his cloning process had
errors which generated genetic defects."
To clone a human
being, scientists would remove the nucleus from an egg and extract its
genetic material, leaving only the membrane. Then the nucleus from a cell
taken from the body of the person to be duplicated would be inserted into
the membrane. With just the genetic material of the person to be cloned
contained within the membrane of the ovule, the cell and the process would
be stimulated with electricity to activate cellular division. The embryo
would then be implanted into a surrogate, which, in the event the experiment
succeeded, would bring the fetus to term.
Currently it
is not possible to perform perfect cloning. However, it’s only a question of
time, money---lots of money---arduous work, political, moral and social
determination, before the millions of details of creation are discovered and
applied.
Money and the
ruling political requisites of the day will dictate what the standards of
the game will be. As was the case during the Prohibition of the 30s, or in
today’s pharmaceutical industry, there will always be physicians,
laboratories and infrastructure, based on confidential information, that
will be ready to clone some bigwig or someone’s beloved for money or
political power.
Where
will the line be drawn between that which is political and that which is
military, or between physiological needs and sentimental ones? Herein
lies the question!
Are
we facing the prospect of eternal life?
Parts of the human
body are already being replaced through perfectly elaborated transplants and
implants. Artificial hearts made out of titanium, plastic and epoxy provide
over 5 years of useful life extension to patients who ordinarily can’t
expect to survive any more than perhaps a couple of weeks.
The barrier to
global telecommunications has already been reached and breached; the new
frontiers for man’s genius are genetics and medicine. The object is to live
better longer!
Concentration
of investments as well as of vital resources essential for life will cause
new interests to appear on the global geopolitical landscape.
International
organizations will have to monitor the proper use of this fantastic new
field in medicine: Genetic Cloning. Or else, we will have the
cloning of geniuses and of the needy on the one hand; and the wicked,
criminals, and the worthless on the other hand, equally being cloned.
We will be in an endless game: balancing both good and evil---and society as
we know it, will be at risk.
…A great part
of the historical events described in this first book are true.
Press clippings
from several newspapers and from the Internet are real and are included
to tie the reader to the actual events. Cities, locations and
organizations are real.
There are
several things that are fiction and a product of the narrative imagination
of the author. I invite the reader to use his/her imagination and
creativity to deem what is real, somewhat real or fiction.

Hedi Enghelberg
Caracas - Venezuela
PS.
With this translation I hope that the English Readers will discover
the story, the history, the past and the present. The future, the not so far
future, I cannot tell ..., but with cloning involved, will be different one
than our Parents.
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