Jeremy Rifkin

According to Jeremy Rifkin in the following viewpoint, human cloning will reduce human life to a commodity. Rifkin argues that ultimately control of reproduction will be taken from individuals and placed in the hands of corporations, which will patent both cloning technology and cloned human embryos. Biotech companies will determine the uses to which cloning will be put, Rifkin claims, which could lead to commercial eugenics—breeding humans to eliminate undesirable genetic traits. Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, is the author of The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How does Rifkin answer the argument that medical science needs embryonic stem cells for research purposes?
2. Why do most people have an almost instinctual revulsion to cloning, in the author’s view...