Pls explain

[prachi18oct]

Advocates of human therapeutic cloning believe the practice could provide genetically identical cells for regenerative medicine, and tissues and organs for transplantation. Such cells, tissues and organs would neither trigger an immune response nor require the use of immunosuppressive drugs. Both basic research and therapeutic development for serious diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, as well as improvements in burn treatment and reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, are areas that might benefit from such new technology. Trying to find compatible donors is difficult and can take a long time, but with therapeutic cloning, the speed of this process would increase and compatibility would not be an issue.

Proponents of another form of human cloning - human reproductive cloning - claim it would also produce benefits, but in a much different way and for a different population. Severino Antinori and Panay Zavos hope to create a fertility treatment that allows parents who are both infertile to have children with at least some of their DNA in their offspring. Some scientists, including Dr. Richard Seed, suggest that human cloning might obviate the human aging process. Dr. Preston Estep has suggested the term "replacement cloning" to describe the generation of a clone of a previously living person, and "persistence cloning" to describe the production of a cloned body for the purpose of obviating aging, although he maintains that such procedures currently should be considered science fiction and current cloning techniques risk producing a prematurely aged child.

All human cloning raises serious implications of a socio-ethical nature, particularly concerning the high expectations that could be placed on cloned individuals of the type suggested by Dr. Estep. Expectations that the cloned individuals act identically to the human they were cloned from could greatly infringe on the right to self-determination (the right to decide who and what they want to be). Even with fertility applications of human cloning - thought by most to be less controversial - ethical issues remain that have not been addressed. For example, a female DNA donor would be the clone's genetic twin, rather than the mother, complicating the genetic and social relationships between mother and child as well as the relationships between other family members and the clone. Before human cloning can move forward, it is important that these many ethical issues be addressed.



The author uses the bolded example in the last paragraph in order to:

A) suggest that human cloning should not move forward
B) highlight the particularly serious ethical concerns relating to fertility applications
C) argue that reproductive cloning carries more ethical concerns than other types of cloning
D) question the motivations and ethics of Dr. Estep
E) emphasize the scientific dangers of even the safest form of cloning

I feel author is not saying that human cloning should not go forward. His intention is to highlight with example the concerns regarding fertility applications

Please guide!

[MartyMurray]

I feel author is not saying that human cloning should not go forward. His intention is to highlight with example the concerns regarding fertility applications

Please guide!

Look at the context of the bolded example.

In the paragraph containing the bolded example, the author is not really talking about or focusing on fertility applications. Rather the author is seeking to support the point made in the first sentence of the paragraph - "All human cloning raises serious implications of a socio-ethical nature" - and the last sentence - "Before human cloning can move forward, it is important that these many ethical issues be addressed."

The ethical concerns of fertility applications are not described as being particularly serious. Rather fertility applications are described as "thought by most to be less controversial". Further, the purpose of the bolded part is not to highlight anything particularly about fertility applications. Rather, the reason for including the bolded part is to support the idea that even with the less controversial fertility applications there are ethical issues and so support the idea that human cloning in general should not move forward.

So A is the best answer.

This is a cool question with a few takeaways. One of them is the need for being careful when doing RC questions and for not jumping too quickly and choosing the first tempting answer that one sees. Another is that looking at the context can be key for understanding the purpose of a part of a passage.