Could cloning be used to create “super warriors” or super-intelligent people?
Possibly – though we don’t yet know enough about human genetics to do much “improving” of people. So far, because of ethical concerns, geneticists are concentrating on finding the causes of genetic diseases and then curing them. Cloning makes it easier to meddle with human and animal genes but is not necessarily genetic improvement. Even before recent discoveries, a considerable amount of genetic improvement of animals was already taking place. A thoroughbred horse is essentially genetically engineered, for example. Genetic engineering is rather a hit and miss technique. You try to add the gene you want in the right place, in the right cell, and sometimes that works. Before cloning, genetically engineering a sheep, for example, might have involved injecting DNA into the egg or early embryo. It was only once the animal grew up and was tested that it was possible to see if the desired genetic change had been introduced and stably incorporated into the animal’s germ-line. Cloning, in theo
