In His Image: The Cloning of Man

Credit: oneofus.eu

In 1978, David Rorvik, in his book In His Image: The Cloning of a Man, claimed that after several years of research and experimentation, a wealthy businessman had been successfully cloned by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer into an enucleated human ovum, which had then been implanted into the uterus of a commercial surrogate mother. Rorvik did not cite sources because he claimed that he was allowed to tell the story only on condition of source anonymity. The publisher of the book was sued by an Oxford University geneticist who claimed that the author had plagiarized his PhD thesis. (The suit was ultimately settled out of court.) In 1996, Dolly the Sheep was successfully cloned at the Roslin Institute in Scotland by somatic cell nuclear transfer and the details were confirmed in Science. Irrespective of whether Rorvik’s account is true, would it have been unethical for the industrialist to have cloned himself? Defend your answer