全新版大学英语综合教程第三册UNIT8-1

A Clone of Our Own
Will humans be the next clones? The technology still has a long way to go before it's considered safe to try on humans. But even if it were safe, would it be right? Let's hear what Professor Hank Greely of Standford University has to say on this topic.

 

 

Interviewer: When will we clone a human?
Greely:  That's not a simple question. I think we have to ask ourselves: is there something about the technology that is so wrong or so evil that it shouldn't be used at all? Or should it be judged according to its intended uses?

 

 
Interviewer: What are acceptable uses?
Greely: We really need to distinguish between different types of cloning. If we use cloning to grow a new liver, I don't think many people will have problems with that -- as long as it's growing a liver and not taking a liver from a cloned person. Human reproductive cloning is much trickier¹.

 

 
Interviewer: Why?
Greely:  Safety. There's still a very low success rate. With Dolly, the first cloned lamb, 29 treated eggs were implanted in sheep to get one Dolly. We don't worry too much about sheep miscarriages² or about deformed³ lambs being born. But we would with humans. And we wouldn't know if a human clone would be healthy.

 

 
Interviewer: Dolly appears to be healthy. Why wouldn't a human clone be so?
Greely:  There may be cell changes that are initially⁴ invisible and only show themselves as the clone ages. There's also a problem with the ends of chromosomes⁵ in cells, which shorten until the cells can no longer reproduce. We know that Dolly's chromosomes are shorter than those of other sheep her age, and we don't know what that means yet.

 

 
Interviewer: Suppose human cloning was safe. In what situations do you see cloning being used?
Greely: Helping⁶ parents who are having difficulty having children would be one area.

 

 
Interviewer:  Are there other situations where it might be acceptable to create a human clone?
Greely: A situation where parents want to create a new child to be a bone marrow⁷ donor⁸ for an older sick child. That's a real tough one. But that issue might never arise if we succeed in growing bone marrow outside the body. Another situation is cloning a child who has accidentally died. I think that's disturbing. But I've never been in that position and so I don't feel comfortable say whether that's a good application or a bad application of the technology.

 

 
Interviewer:  What about cloning a Hitler or Michael Jordan?
Greely: I think we can dismiss those as bad or even silly applications.

 

 
Interviewer: Is there anything else you'd like to say about the future of human cloning?
Greely: Even if cloning humans were safe and we as a society had decided⁹ it was right and proper for reproductive purposes, I don't think we'd see a lot of clones. The old-fashioned way of making babies has a lot going for it: It's easy, traditional, well understood, and occasionally even pleasant. People are not going to give up sex anytime soon.

 

 

1 trickier   

adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的

参考例句：

• This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则，但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
• The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低，问题就越复杂。 来自互联网

2 miscarriages   

流产( miscarriage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Miscarriages are usually caused by abnormal chromosome patterns in the fetus. 流产通常是因为胎儿的染色体异常造成的。
• Criminals go unpunishedareconvicted and are miscarriages of justice. 罪犯会逍遥法外，法律会伤及无辜，审判不公时有发生。

3 deformed   

adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的

参考例句：

• He was born with a deformed right leg.他出生时右腿畸形。
• His body was deformed by leprosy.他的身体因为麻风病变形了。

4 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

5 chromosomes   

n.染色体( chromosome的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chromosomes also determine the sex of animals. 染色体也决定动物的性别。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Each of four chromosomes divide longitudinally. 四种染色体的每一种都沿着纵向分裂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

8 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。