X-Message-Number: 8994
From: "Halperin, Jim" <>
Subject: Response to Essay in January 19 TIME Magazine
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 13:02:11 -0600

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In case any of you saw Charles Krauthammer's essay in TIME this week, 
here is a letter I sent to the Editor in response. I doubt they'll 
print it, but you never know.

Dear Editor:
	I have enjoyed many of Charles Krauthammer's previous essays. But his 
last piece, Of Headless Mice... and Men, was an irresponsible 
knee-jerk to a serious issue, one that requires thoughtful analysis 
and investigation. While the notion of cloned headless human bodies 
may, on first take, seem macabre, creating such organisms is hardly 
immoral. A neck-down replication of a human body would have no 
capacity for consciousness and therefore, despite any appearances, is 
itself not human. In fact there is nothing morally differentiating 
such organisms from cloned hearts or livers. In the name of saving us 
from the so-called "ultimate vanity" of immortality, would Krauthammer 
really seek to deny such science to a friend or loved one who requires 
a lifesaving organ transplant?
	More to the point, there is no realistic way to stop what Krauthammer 
fears. No government can prevent all scientists worldwide from 
developing new technologies that might help others, regardless of any 
potential for abuse. Does anyone prefer that only Iraqi and Libyan 
scientists should be permitted to clone human organs?
	The bizarre notion of making this medically justified experimentation 
a "capital crime" is far more frightening and anti-human, from every 
perspective, than the science Krauthammer seeks to stop.
Sincerely, James L. Halperin,
Dallas, Texas
Author of The First Immortal - a novel of the future.


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