The frightening idea of engineering immortality - The Irish Times - Sat, Feb 05, 2011

The frightening idea of engineering immortality - The Irish Times - Sat, Feb 05, 2011: "WHAT SUBJECT could be more vitally important than the future of our species, the possibilities of achieving a sort of immortality by serial identical cloning and the emancipation of women from the burdens of pregnancy and childbirth? The prospects Philip Ball presents in this book are dazzling, but there is a snag: many people are superstitiously afraid that resorting to biological technology to enhance or even create life must result in a loss of God-given natural humanity.

With a Bristol doctorate in biology, Ball is a scientific polymath whose easy-to-read books on abstruse subjects have won great praise: “fascinating and eye-opening”, “lucid and resplendent”, “his mastery of many scientific disciplines is a delight”. Unnatural is commendable for the fairness and clarity with which he balances arguments in favour of new techniques of ectogenesis (the development of embryos outside the womb) and eugenics (controlled breeding to increase the inheritance of advantageous characteristics) against conservative religious and other ethical objections."