J. B. S. HALDANE 
nubile, he was killed to avoid inbreeding. But he might, and 
often did, leave the village with a chosen partner. Having 
fought in the same brigade as the 6th Jats, I can testify to their 
courage and efficiency as soldiers. In view of such traditions, 
the choice of a father other than a woman’s legal husband may 
arouse less opposition in some parts of India than in other 
countries, whether artificial insemination or the normal process 
is employed. 
Perhaps India may return to this practice. It is in fact per- 
mitted under existing Hindu law. There is, however, another 
possibility which I at least take seriously. We have known how 
to grow mammalian cells in culture for over fifty years. Human 
cells, not only from embryos, children, and cancers, but from 
a sixty-year-old man, have been grown for years on end. We _ 
do not know how to induce them to organize themselves. But 
we may find out at any moment, as we have already found out 
in the case of some plant cells. It is extremely hopeful that some 
human cell lines can be grown on a medium of precisely known 
chemical composition. Perhaps the first step will be the pro- 
duction of a clone from a single fertilized egg, as in Brave New 
World. But this would be of little social value. The production 
of a clone from cells of persons of attested ability would be a 
very different matter, and might raise the possibilities of human 
achievement dramatically. For exceptional people commonly — 
have unhappy childhoods, as their parents, teachers, and con- 
temporaries try to force them to conform to ordinary standards. 
Many are permanently deformed by the traumatic experiences 
of their childhoods. Probably a great mathematician, poet, or 
painter could most usefully spend his life from 55 years on in 
educating his or her own clonal offspring so that they avoided 
at least some of the frustrations of their original. 
On the general principle that men will make all possible mis- 
takes before choosing the right path, we shall no doubt clone 
the wrong people. However everyone selected for this purpose 
will presumably exceed the median considerably in some res- 
pect, if only as a humbug. And the greatest humbugs, like 
Hitler, would hardly relish the thought of producing a dozen 
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