But when it comes to qualities like character and appearance, they would probably defer to nature's wisdom. On the other hand, if biologists could offer the option of selecting these qualities too, as may become technically possible once the human genome has been sequenced, then some parents would probably want to try it. We've been misled by science fiction writers into assuming that the cloners will make cohorts of crazed despots. It's more likely that human cloning will become a rare option offered in fertility clinics, and most cloning activity will be in farm animals. Cloning just means making an exact copy, and a replica of something is intrinsically boring.
Gene therapy is more interesting because it offers the chance of making something new or better.
So far it doesn't work very well. But scientists announced a few weeks ago they had isolated human embryonic stem cells, and these may offer a much more effective way of introducing new genes into human tissues. Blythe asks if scientists could use these techniques to pursue the creation of perfect people. I think the broad answer is yes, at least in the sense that it will become technically feasible to improve the human genetic make-up in certain ways. Scientists are not going to try any such thing without society's consent, of course.