T A B L E+T A L K Richard Nixon lives! Join the "tanned, rested and ready" conversation in Politics D A I L Y+Q U O T E The con artist known as Prince R E C E N T L Y Taps for Sonny Bono By David Corn He came in to Washington as a joke and went out a mensch. (01/07/98) The army of the right By Jonathan Broder An embittered U.S. military is embracing hard right ideologies (01/06/98) Is Kaczynski too crazy to be executed? By Ros Davidson Yes, if the defense can turn him into a human being (01/05/98) And the losers are ... By Andrew Ross Salon's first annual scumbags of the year awards (12/24/97) Pied Piper of the Clinton conspiracists By Gene Lyons British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard thinks the president is guilty of everything (12/23/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		_THE__MAN_WHO_WOULD_BE_God... ... AND THE PEOPLE READY TO FIGHT THE ANTI-CHRIST BY JONATHAN BRODER | When Chicago entrepreneur Richard Seed announced that he intends to open a human cloning clinic to help infertile couples have babies, the scientific community gasped, doctors shuddered and right-to-life activists grinned, their crusade suddenly energized by the prospect of man trying to play God. Seed, a retired physicist, says he is merely following up on what Scottish scientists did in 1996 when they cloned Dolly, an adult ewe. Doctors and researchers say Seed is rushing ahead of current cloning technology and irresponsibly giving hope to infertile couples where none yet exists. Religious leaders, especially those on the Christian right, view Seed as a modern Dr. Frankenstein, using science to violate the holiness of human life. And some members of the Republican-controlled Congress are now seizing on those concerns to ram through legislation that would ban the possibility of human cloning forever. "You might say Mr. Seed is an inadvertent ally of my efforts," said Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., a right-to-life champion who introduced bills last March banning forever any human cloning in the United States. The legislation has been languishing in committee since then, but its supporters agree that Seed's announcement has injected new life in the matter. "We will be actively supporting this legislation," said Jeff Kwitowski, the executive assistant director for governmental affairs at the Christian Coalition. "This is just one more step toward the breakdown of the sanctity of human life. It's right up there with abortion." As the political reaction gathers force, scientists and reproductive experts blame Seed for needlessly igniting a firestorm that could affect future cloning research. "There's no reason to believe him," said Gina Kolata, a New York Times science reporter and author of the just-published "Clone: The Road to Dolly and the Path Ahead." "Here's somebody who doesn't have the money, doesn't have a lab and doesn't have anybody who he can reveal to us who is going to do this for him. Why would you believe this?" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - N E X T+P A G E+| Can it be done?