Date: Fri 16-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-DNA-clone-cloning

Full Text:

A Lesson On DNA Turns To The Issue Of Cloning

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

With the recent announcement by scientist Richard Seed that he hopes to

achieve four human clone pregnancies within 18 months, Wendy Bowen's sixth

graders had plenty to discuss as they extracted DNA in science class.

Reactions to human cloning varied widely. Some students felt the whole idea

was dangerous and should be left alone, while others saw it as an opportunity

to recreate a loved one, someone they admired, or someone to combat a foe.

Students spoke longingly of grandmothers they missed and sports figures they

would like to see duplicated.

The students seemed to be under the impression that DNA makes the person,

fully and completely. After having viewed movies like Jurassic Park where DNA

makes the dinosaur fully and completely, this perception is not surprising.

One girl said, while putting together a DNA model, "I would clone my brother."

The boy across the table retorted, "I thought you hated your brother!" The

girl responded, "I do. I would clone him so he would have someone to torment

him the way he torments me!"

Coming up with what he may have thought was a more positive goal, one boy

commented that "they could make everyone the same: Every guy handsome, and

every girl beautiful." Then, after a pause, he said "but then they wouldn't be

different, so nobody would know that they were handsome."

Broad philosophical issues, like the ethical and moral implications of human

cloning, and the effect that human cloning could have on the future of

humanity, were hard for sixth graders to grasp.

Wendy Bowen, teacher, commented that a human being is more than just a body.

She expressed concern with serious ethical issues, such as the proposed

practice of mass cloning of human parts for use in organ transplants.

She questioned what would stop someone from mass producing people with certain

characteristics, or cloning Hitler.

Nancy Contolini, teacher at Brookfield High School who visited Wendy Bowen's

sixth grade class to teach about DNA, also had strong reservations about the

advisability of human cloning for both procedural and ethical reasons.

She said that until more research had been done with animal cloning, it should

not be attempted for humans. Even if procedures were perfected, she was not

ready to condone the idea of human cloning.

Ms Contolini explained that most of the kids she meets while teaching about

DNA have a wary kind of fascination with the whole idea of manipulating DNA.

She said that "most kids think that we should not mess with Mother Nature" but

when it comes to extracting DNA for real "they are pretty amazed that they can

do it."

Ms Contolini's visits to area schools are funded through the Christa McAuliffe

Fellowship.

Middle school students may sign up to participate in a real-life application

of DNA analysis to be held on the evening of Thursday, January 29. Students

will have to apply their knowledge of DNA and detective skills in solving a

fictitious murder, with guest narrator John Reed, Superintendent of Schools.