EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
' Our
VIEW
Cloning
quandary
Experiments create
question of safety
Every grade-school child knows the
old adage that you shouldn’t fool with
Mother Nature.
Why, then, does Chicago physicist
Richard Seed insist on carrying out his
planned human genetic cloning experi
ments? Even after an almost unanimous
shout-down from the world’s scientific
community, a denunciation from President
Bill Clinton and a possible ban from
human cloning by Congress, Seed contin
ues to pursue his plan.
His defense? An outpouring of support
from infertile couples nationwide who
supposedly wish one day to see Seed’s
propositions reach fruition has risen up,
offering the good doctor the support he
needs to continue his work. Seed plans to
J clone a human child within the next two
years, moving his enterprise to Tijuana,
Mexico, if necessary, should Congress
pass a ban on human cloning.
Seed is not worried about the moral,
religious, social or scientific implications
these experiments carry with them, but his
explanation is simple enough.
“It’s not a difficult project,” he said ear
lier this week. Well, that’s reason enough,
isn’t it?
The possibility of a human clone is not
just a matter of morality, though; there is a
distinct safety factor involved in such
experimentation. The fact that such an
accomplishment has never been achieved
before is not reason enough to recreate a
human’s body, despite the fact that the two
beings’ personalities would not be identi
cal. If there is one thing history has taught
us, new, bizarre scientific studies often
end with painful, even fatal, results.
Just ask the former citizens of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Scientific breakthroughs and discover
ies are a necessary part of our world. Our
society has become too dependent on tech
nological advances to return to the Stone
Age, and that is a weakness that perhaps
should be addressed at another time.
There are practical applications for
Seed’s work, such as donor organs and
even children for those infertile couples
who support him, but the road to discovery
should be treaded lightly.
To paraphrase Michael Crichton’s Dr.
Ian Malcolm, genetic engineering is one
of the strongest forces ever known to man,
and it is being wielded by scientists like
children who have found their fathers’
guns.
And although Dr. Seed is not planning
to engineer creatures who have been dead
for 65 million years, he has definitely
cocked the hammer on a loaded gun.
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Haney’s
VIEW
DN
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ietters9uniinfo.unl.edu.
You can talk the talk...
I am a little fed up with Todd
Munson bashing East Campus, (and)
especially Burr Hall. The accusation
that the “good oF boys” from Burr
stealing the statue is an outrage. For
starters, Burr Hall wasn’t even open
at the time, so you can bet that most
residents were at home watching die
game.
I want to know if Munson has ever
even been to East Campus. I know
that I would rather be over here than
on City Campus. Everybody knows
everybody in Burr, we all get along,
and we don’t even have to lock our
door when we aren’t there.
I don’t know where Todd gets the
ideas that we are all a bunch of stupid
people from the hills, but at least we
have respect for each other.
I don’t mean to bash City
Campus. There are a lot of cool things
over there. Memorial Stadium, Cook
Pavilion, and there are a lot of people
I know living on City Campus - peo
ple I am proud to know and who
would not dare to put down East
Campus.
I came to school here with the
nation that the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln was one school
with two campuses, but people seem
to think that they are fwo rival
schools. As mature adults we should
at least try to get along.
Sam Mortensen
freshman
ag education
~ but you can’t walk the walk
To all the Michigan fans whining:
Do you hear the same whining com
ing from Nebraska fans? It seems to
me, and those fans I associate with,
Nebraska is more than content shar
ing the title. / y §
We have heard one Michigan fan
after the other announce why they
should be the sole champion of the
country, and then exalt in the fact that
they have “class” in the same breath.
And does the Michigan team exem
plify this class you speak of? After
seeing the players don “National
Champion” clothes immediately
after the final seconds of the Rose
Bowl, and after hearing Michigan’s
head coach proclaim his team the
national champions before any polls
■ Y -1 •,. • * v ^ '
had been taken, I would scream a
resounding NO! And what of com
ments degrading Tom Osborne as
“satanic”? Evidently this Michigan
class is not shared by all fans, I can
assure you,
The Big Ten and Pac Ten had their
chance to join the Bowl Alliance this
year and avoid the dilemma of choos
ing the top-rated team, but they opted
to stay with the Rose Bowl for one
more year. So when you get right
down to it, Michigan should be happy
to share die tide.
Ryan Nystrom
junior
business management
Enough, already!
Please, please, I beg of you to
puh-lease plug up the flow of whiny
football swill from the state of
Michigan. I just can’t take it any
more.
By now we all know the story. We
know THE DEBATE about the
Osbome-retiring-sympathy vote ver
sus the no-title-in-50-years vote, the
strength of schedules, “arrogant
punks” pleading and begging, not
scoring enough points, scoring too
many points (“... but had the tact to
not RUN UP the score....” What the
hell does that mean?), the “miracle”
win, comparing common opponents,
etc., etc., etc.
This fan (who has been watching,
reading and sleeping THE DEBATE
since die end of the regular season
through the bowls and now wed into
the New Year) has had enough. I can
only wonder what the non-football
fan thinks about all of the seemingly
never-ending drivel and the opium
for-the-masses phenomenon known
as sports. Let us not forget the tacts:
Polls are based on opinions. The writ
ers’poll picked Michigan. The coach
es’ poll picked Nebraska. The
MYTHICAL national championship
is contrived, hypothetical and imagi
nary.
And to paraphrase the late, great
Bob Devaney, there are about a bil
lion Chinese who don’t give a rath ass
who would win if the Huskers played
the Wolverines.
Besides, everybody knows it’d he
the Huskers.
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\ MattHanr/DN
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