Free to be me: would-be cloners pushing the debate.

Catalan is part of a small but serious cadre of would-be clonees, people who have studied the science, considered the issues and concluded that their pursuit of happiness might best be fulfilled by having themselves or a loved one cloned. Their perspective is not countenanced on Capitol Hill, where Congress -though vigorously debating whether to allow the cloning of human embryos for research -is unified in its opposition to the creation of cloned babies. Nor is human cloning widely favored by the public. In a poll of Americans conducted last summer, almost 90 percent said scientists should not be allowed to use cloning to try to create children for infertile couples.