Geneticist: Ethicists have fears, many of them reasonable, about the prospect of cloning human beings, that is, producing exact genetic duplicates. But the horror-movie image of a wealthy person creating an army of exact duplicates is completely unrealistic.
Clones must be raised and educated, a long-term process that could never produce adults identical to the original in terms of outlook, personality, or goals. More realistic is the possibility that wealthy individuals might use clones as living “organ banks.”
The claim that cloning will not produce adults with identical personalities plays which one of the following roles in the geneticist’s argument?
(A) It is a
reason for dismissing the various fears raised by ethicists regarding the cloning of human beings. - WRONG. Instigating but the absoluteness of this choice must raise eyebrows.
(B) It is
evidence that genetic clones
will never be produced successfully. - WRONG. Irrelevant altogether.
(C) It illustrates the claim that
only wealthy people would be able to have genetic duplicates made of themselves. - WRONG. Not 'only wealthy people'. It misses the larger picture actually.
(D) It is evidence for the claim that
wealthy people might use genetic duplicates of themselves as sources of compatible organs for transplantation. - WRONG. Horror interpretation.
(E) It is a reason for discounting one possible fear concerning the cloning of human beings - CORRECT.
Only A and E are the contenders. E deals with the passage nicely by putting a more sober aspect of the passage claim, unless one misunderstands the 'discounting' aspect.
Answer E.