AMAZON CLONE - TOMORROW'S INTELLECTUAL? 

AN OLD GREEK LEGEND TALKS OF A RACE OF TALL AND STRONG FEMALE WARRIORS -- HEROIC MAIDENS -- WHO LIVED NEAR THE BLACK SEA. THEY WERE THE AMAZONS. THEY MAY RETURN. BUT VIA A ROUTE MANY CONSIDER UNTHINKABLE.

RECENT MEDICAL TECHNIQUES, CALLED "ARTIFICIAL TWINNING" AND "DELAYED TWINNING", ARE THE BIZARRE ROUTE BEING PROPOSED. APPARENTLY IT IS NOT CONSIDERED UNUSUAL AS FAR AS ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC PROCEDURE IS CONCERNED.

IN SWITZERLAND, KARL ILLMENSEE AND PETER HOPPE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA HAVE TAKEN NUCLEI FROM WEEK-OLD MICE EMBRYOS, TRANSPLANTED THESE MINISCULE SPECKS AND PRODUCED CLONED MICE.

FOR HUMANS IT MAY BE A BIT MORE DIFFICULT, BUT THAT IS CONSIDERED BY SOME JUST A TIME DETAIL.

IT SEEMS THAT NORMAL MALE SPERM NOW AND THEN CONTAINS A "DIPLOID SPERM". WHICH HAS 46 CHROMOSOMES INSTEAD OF THE NORMAL 23. CLONING THIS CELL MIGHT BE IFFY. EVEN FINDING IT COULD BE A PROBLEM. WITH FEMALES HOWEVER, A MATURE OVUM PRODUCES 46 CHROMOSOMES IN WHAT IS MEDICALLY KNOWN AS A "POLAR BODY". HERE LIES THE MOST FERTILE FIELD ACCORDING TO SOME RESEARCHERS.

AN EMBRYO IS IMMERSED IN LIQUID NITROGEN AND QUICK-FROZEN FOR INDEFINITE STORAGE. IT THEN CAN BE THAWED LATER AND PLACED IN A WOMB. IN THE WORDS OF THE LEADING AUTHORITY IN THIS FIELD, DR. GEORGE SEIDEL OF COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY, "ONE COULD MAKE IDENTICAL TWIN FEMALE EMBRYOS, FREEZE ONE OF THEM, AND TRANSFER IT TO THE OTHER WHEN SHE BECOMES SEXUALLY MATURE SO THAT THE FIRST FEMALE GIVES BIRTH TO HER IDENTICAL TWIN SISTER."

THE ALLEGEDLY STRONG BONDING CLAIMED BY SOME SCIENTISTS TO EXIST BETWEEN TWINS MIGHT BE EVEN STRONGER WHEN THESE TIME-SPACED CLONES RELATE NOT ONLY AS IDENTICAL TWINS BUT ALSO AS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER! PERHAPS SUCH PSYCHOLOGICALLY SIMILAR THINKING PROCESSESS WOULD RECREATE A RACE OF AMAZONS WHO WOULD CONSIDER THEMSELVES DIFFERENT AND PERHAPS "SUPERIOR" TO THOSE BORN IN AGES PAST VIA OLD-FASHIONED METHODS.

"NATURAL SELECTION" STEPPED UP TO A NEW PLANE?

DR. SEIDEL QUESTIONS PART OF THIS. HE BELIEVES PSYCHOLOGICAL BONDING MAY BE OVERPLAYED AND GENETIC BONDING UNDERESTIMATED.

UNNATURAL YOU SAY? AMPLE INSTANCES FROM HISTORY PROVE THAT DEPENDS ON WHEN YOU LIVE. TODAY IT WOULD BE CONSIDERED BIZARRE HERE IF ANY ETHNIC GROUP HAD TO "MOVE TO THE BACK OF THE BUS". WOMEN DIDN'T ALWAYS HAVE "EQUAL RIGHTS". IT WASN'T THAT LONG AGO THAT THEY COULDN'T EVEN VOTE. IN SOME AGES, IN SOME COUNTRIES, BABY GIRLS GOT "THROWN OVER THE WALL" BECAUSE MALE BABIES WERE PREFERRED. CONTRACEPTIVES WERE ILLEGAL AND STILL ARE IN MANY LOCATIONS. CONTROVERSY STILL BOILS OVER THE "RIGHT TO ABORTION". SO IT ALL DEPENDS ON GEOGRAPHY AND OUR PLANET'S LOCATION IN TIME AND SPACE. SOME DAY YOU MAY EVEN HEAR OF "ROBOT RIGHTS"!

THE RIGHT TO BE CLONED MAY BE EVENTUALLY ENSHRINED AS AN AMENDMENT TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS. AFTER ALL IT IS YOUR BODY AND JUST ANOTHER "FREEDOM OF CHOICE" MATTER.

STILL UNCONVINCED? DO YOU THINK IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE? YOU GUESSED WRONG. THIS SAME PROFESSOR SEIDEL HAS ALREADY SET UP A PROCESS CALLED "ARTIFICIAL TWINNING". HIS "TEAM" AT THE COLORADO STATE EMBRYO TRANSFER LABORATORY, LED BY POST-DOCTORAL STUDENT DR. TIM WILLIAMS, HAVE ALREADY PRODUCED A MATCHED PAIR OF HORSES. THEIR NAMES: "QUESTION" AND "ANSWER".

IN THIS PROCEDURE AN EMBRYO, EARLY IN ITS GROWTH PERIOD, IS DIVIDED INTO TWO HALVES. THIS IS NOT CONSIDERED A DANGEROUS SURGICAL MOVE. THE DIFFERENT PORTIONS ARE THEN IMPLANTED IN DIFFERENT WOMBS TO BE BORN AS IDENTICAL TWIN HORSES. THE PROCEDURE WOULD BE ALMOST THE SAME FOR ANY MAMMAL. DR. SEIDEL CASUALLY MENTIONED THAT THE LAB HAD JUST COMPLETED "FOURTEEN SETS OVER THE LAST THREE-WEEK PERIOD"!! THESE WERE BOVINE EMBRYO TRANSPLANTS. THE UNIVERSITY HAS NOW SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED MORE THAN 100 SUCH BIOLOGICAL TRANSFERS.

DR. SEIDEL MENTIONED THAT ONE PROCEDURE LETS THE FERTILIZED OVUM DEVELOP TO THE TWO-CELL STAGE AND THEN MAKES THE SEPARATION. ONE CELL GOES TO A SURROGATE MOTHER AND THE OTHER GOES INTO THE FREEZER. FURTHER IMPROVEMENT CAN LET THE CELL GROW TO THE FOUR-CELL STAGE PRIOR TO THE SPLITTING PROCESS. THE ULTIMATE LIMIT IS UNKNOWN, BUT IDENTICAL OCTUPLETS APPEAR TO BE POSSIBLE. WOMEN'S LIB WILL NEVER BE THE SAME? DR. SEIDEL ISN'T BIG ON THE AMAZON THEORY. HE BELIEVES MOST WOULD TURN OUT TO BE JUST LIKE THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

HOWEVER, IT WILL COME. ONLY THE DETAILS ARE ADJUSTABLE. ARE YOU ADJUSTING YOUR HEAD TO THE NEW SCENE?

FURTHER DETAILS: DR. GEORGE SEIDEL, EMBRYO TRANSFER LABORATORY, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY, FORT COLLINS, COLORADO 80523. TEL 303/491-8251.

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