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Frankenstein syndrome: Why do we fear making humans?

By Philip Ball

9 February 2011

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Frankenstein’s monster was stripped of his intelligence in film and theatre versions

(Image: Hulton/Getty)

From IVF to artificial wombs, why does each advance in reproductive technology still conjure up visions of monsters or Hitler clones?

WHEN Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the Vatican spokesman for bioethics, objected to IVF pioneer Robert Edwards receiving the 2010 Nobel prize for medicine, he stressed that he was speaking in a personal capacity.

But opposition to assisted conception is official papal policy. In 2004, Pope John Paul II condemned IVF as “a technology that wants to substitute true paternity and maternity and therefore that does…

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