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Evolution of the Clonal Man: Inventing Science Unfiction

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Abstract

From carrots to frogs to sheep and finally to humans, the history of cloning is a fascinating study of the interplay between science and popular culture. Imagination and discovery provide mutual impetus in the evolving science and cultural phenomenon of cloning. Its history is a paradigm of science unfiction: What once belonged unequivocally on the pages of science fiction is now emerging in flesh and blood. Writers, movie producers, ethicists, and all manner of social commentators, no less than scientists, have all participated in the creation of the human clone as an idea and as a biological entity. While the clone stands apart as having only one genetic parent, it truly is a brainchild of multifarious origins.

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  1. American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, 338 Lombard St #315, Philadelphia, PA, 19147

    Peter N. Poon

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Poon, P.N. Evolution of the Clonal Man: Inventing Science Unfiction. Journal of Medical Humanities 21, 159–173 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009078620330

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