European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 07, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Poge 12 the stars and stripes monday August 7, 1978 George f. Will lab dish baby May be an ominous portent in six billion years when we need to rekindle the Sun. We May be Able to do so. But Here one must use the pronoun we gingerly. It assumes a continuity of the human species that perhaps should not be assumed. Thanks to genetic engineering and other biomedical marvels the Day May come when our prefabricated successors As Homo Sapiens will look Back upon us As merely primitive sketches of what human beings were to become when re drafted by biological technologies. As this is written a British woman has delivered the first child conceived in a lab oratory dish. One of her eggs having been fertilized by her husband s sperm the resulting embryo was kept for a few Days in a nutrient fluid and then implanted in her womb. Such scientific virtuosity can help people who could not otherwise conceive babies. But it is principally interesting and ominous As a step toward the Point where Mankind shall have the Power to de Termine what kind of babies shall be made. Arthur c. Clarke author of science fic Tion and science commentary is also author of Clarke s Law the next great scientific Advance will be the one which the most eminent scientist has most recently declared 1121, Orville Wright said that the Lim its of flight had almost been reached and probably precluded continent to continent flight across the Atlantic. In 1932, Albert Einstein was not optimistic about the possibility of nuclear fission which he com pared to shooting Birds in the dark in a country where there Are few Birds. Today scientists Are More chary of pre William Safire diction about technical limits and Al though laymen consider the birth in Brit Ain exciting they also regard it As an expect Able next step in an endless progression rather than As a startling discontinuity in human experience. There is a distinctly modern sense of the unfolding of the human race of its present As Well As its past being there is. Perhaps no reason to be Lieve that evolution has come to a halt or that evolution will continue independently of human premeditation. Thoughtful writes or. Leo Kass of the University of Chicago have Long known that the Campaign for the technological Conquest of nature conducted under the Banner of Modem science would someday train its guns against the commanding officer Man have managed their populations even their Gene pools in various ways. There exists an ancient let Ter from an egyptian worker to his wife that says if it is a boy. Keep it. If it is a girl throw it surplus or Burden some or unpromising infants often girls or the deformed were eliminated by Socie ties Long before pre Natal diagnostic techniques made it possible to make decisions for elimination Early in a pregnancy. Biology now stirs a fear never stirred by physics that scientific advancement May uneaten rather than enhance Man kind s self esteem. Physics with its Power of annihilation poses Only a physical threat. Biology with its threat to improve the species jeopardizes Mankind s sense of dignity. Still Many scientists arid laymen feel the exhilaration that one scientist express for the first time in All time a living creature understands its origins and can undertake to design its future. Even in the ancient myths Man was constrained by Nis essence. He could not Rise above his nature to Chart his destiny. Today we can envision that Chance and its dark companion of awesome Choice and responsibility. We can be the agent of transition to a wholly new path of evolution. This is a cosmic is no less. As Kass says with embryo transfers which Are just the Begioni Wanew manipulations of life the in process of generating becomes the Cial process of and to Lay o hands on human generation is to f-1major step toward making Man " simply another one of the new knowledge techniques be a More appropriately Neutral May take Mankind where it ought to but there is no certainty that the i ought will be important in Cussion. pm Climax of i980 demo National convention Here we Are in the Anchor Booth at the 1980 democratic convention and in a few moments the candidate and his run Ning mate will appear before these enthusiastic delegates. While we re waiting a Recap of the events that led us to this historic moment Back in the summer of 78. Well before the credit crunch and recession it became apparent that president Carter would face a Challenge within his own party. The polls indicated he would be a one term presi Dent but the question remained would he be a one time nominee after the strange midterm elections of 78, where democrats Cut their losses in the House by charging that Republican challengers would run up huge deficits with irresponsible tax cutting political at Tention focused on California gov. Jerry Brown who had performed the feat of gaining support from voters on both sides of that Issue. The Long Brown Campaign n for the presidential nomination As we know was Man aged by former sen. Eugene Mccarthy. Whose near Victory in new Hampshire a dozen years ago drove a sitting president from office. However the old Jackson Wing of the democratic party was not about to aban Don the Field to Carter and Brown neither of whom it Felt could take the measure of new soviet chairman Andrei Kirilenko in Early 79, senator Jackson and George Meany let it be known they would support the candidacy of sen. Daniel Patrick Moy Nihan. That left a vacuum on the left. With Ted Kennedy resolutely refusing to even con Sider a race the tattered remnant of Liber Al doves regrouped behind sen. George in who attracted much attention with his "1 will go to Cuba pledge in the dirty thirty As the demo 32. Risk to of presidential Prima Ries of 1980 those of you who have been �52 Les Day ni8ht o for this year remember the results. Airltn100 the "pT61" in new in p Taring
