European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 23, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Flora Lewis having potential not enough we must deliver reviving a damaged Stul tidied society is a herculean task. Revolutionaries thought they had a shortcut formula take Power give orders enforce them. The striking phenomenon As the20th Century cars its end is the new demonstration that this formula does t work. It has Long been recognized that Power corrupts. What the totalitarian countries arc Only coming to Sec is How much it corrodes the very capacity to shift to the More difficult but ultimately More effective Road of Reform. Dispersing Power without provoking chaos that will bring some new dictatorship turns out to be harder than amassing it. Mikhail Gorbachev has already been driven a great Deal further than he Ever imagined would be necessary when he set out to inject a Little verve into his Economy. Compare what he is doing now with the program he Laid Down at the 1986 party Congress just Over three years ago. Then his idea of vigorous Reform was to develop technology Cut Back Al Cohol and introduce a Little Slack in the Light system of Central planning and farm collectives. He has had to accept strikes ethnic upheavals exposure of old lies and per Stroika has t yet begun to produce. There is still a much longer Way to go and Many unforeseen perils. The Surprise is that he plunges on with challenges to be sure but enough support to keep heading for the goal. China s Deng Xiaoping audaciously set out on Market reforms a decade ago. They worked stunningly up to a Point. But the Market was t really freed Only at the margins. Remaining controls inevitably brought corruption and demands for political Reform. That was too much for him and he thought he could set Clear limits with repression. Now China is sliding backward on its economic opening with new constraints on foreign enterprises. Everything will slow Down. Hard earned expertise is lost As students abroad decline to go Home. Still the direction has been set an the conclusion is Clear. Marxism leninism As it has been practice is reaching the end of the Road. Whatever the Dan Andrew j. Glass Gers of geopolitics there is no longer a communist threat to the rest of the  John Lloyd writes in the Finan Cial times the various communist countries seeking to create a Market Economy May have made the faustian bargain with the Market and it cannot be  they arc facing the capitalist woes of unemployment huge dislocation inequalities rampant inflation which their people May simply refuse to tolerate in return for yet another Promise on some Distant Day reasonable Prosperity. This is because the revolutionary Ide als of social Justice still have a powerful hold and because they were partially realized. The system proved incapable of burying capitalism or even raising living standards but its rules were known if not loved Lloyd Points out. It provided Security for people who had never known such a  and despite the terrors it provided Stan Dards of social decency and Honor in work even the lowliest. Such goals have not been abandoned not in Western societies either. They arc still capable of moving people. What if the faustian bargain of a sys tem stripped of its commands but keep ing a Strong sense of social responsibility docs manage to deliver it is a mistake to imagine the urge to material Benefit and democracy Means those societies want to be just like  if there is a danger in he possibility of soviet Success which some conserva Tives dwell upon it comes not from the strengths of their society but the weak Nesses of ours a new comparison which May be looming Down the Road. Capitalism and Freedom have Over come but not in pure Triumph. The next round of Competition is Likely once again to be a society race not this time against a provably false Utopia. We Haven t enough laurels to rest on. The Scourge of drugs should suggest much More than inadequate Law enforcement greed failed family responsibility. It has to mean thai there is some thing missing something our society is failing to provide in its Basic Promise of  Are producing not Only youths with inferior education and desire to learn we arc producing crack babies who May be i educable because of birth  Are producing homeless who live on Park benches and streets in the midst of empty buildings where they cannot afford space. We let developers blow up old buildings that could be repaired  can invest in expensive new ones another part of the Hud scandal. The ideals Haven t changed Nei ther have they been achieved we have the capacity and the social system to do better. That won t be enough. We too have to deliver. A Solomon needed in Frozen embryo dispute the Bible does not Tell us if King Solomon conferred with a medical ethics Board before ruling that a baby of disputed parentage should be Cut in half. But we do know that until 1978 there had been just one Way for a Man and woman to create a child. That was when the science fiction notion of Conception in a test tube became a reality. Scientists Call the process of initially joining the parents egg and sperm in a Glass dish in Vitro fertilization if. In the past 11 years some 5,250 if babies have begun life outside their mothers wombs. In the United states alone some 200 centers offer fresh Hope of Conception to infertile couples longing to have children of their own. Given the Broad use of if techniques it was just a matter of time until a custody Battle arose Over these human cells. The Issue in a Tennessee divorce Case is the Legal ownership of seven uni planted embryos Frozen in a Bath of liquid nitrogen. In that dispute the woman says those embryos rep resent her last Chance to have a child. The Man says they Are joint property and wonders Why she would want to have my child after All  As the landmark Case moves up the appeals ladder judges will Rule m an area of the Law that did not exist until scientists pushed Back the limits of human Conception. Politicians Are unlikely to offer much guid Ance. During Ronald Reagan s presidency washing ton clamped a bureaucratic freeze on federally funded fetal research. Current regulations hold that such studies must be reviewed by an ethics advisory Board. Yet the Board was dissolved in 1980 and has never been revived. In the past decade attempts to set Public policy on the thorny questions of biomedical research have become stalled in the broader National conflict Over abortion. An inactive joint congressional panel on medical ethics is legally obliged to report next year on fetal issues human genetic engineering and with drawing sustenance from the terminally ill. No panel no reports. Medieval potentates decreed that the planet sat at the Center of the Cosmos but astronomers continued to explore the universe. In the same fashion scientists shake up the tree of life without pausing to seek ethical or Legal guidance from politically paralysed politicians or bureaucrats. Clinics create sperm and egg Banks and freeze human embryos. A 48-year-old surrogate Mother has Given birth to triplets from eggs donated by her daughter and fertilized by her son in Law before being implanted in her womb. A Texas genetic Engi Neering concern has found a Way of dividing fertilized calf embryos so that the resulting offspring Par celeb out through ovum transfers Are born As total clones. Docs such work mean one Day we stand a Chance of curing Many genetically linked disorders do we have the potential of freezing pc can cryonic genetic replicas of men and woman who might go on to be come great thinkers or athletes so that their banked cloned versions could live in another generation i perhaps. But it is Clear that the technology of pro creation has outstripped society s ability to Cope. With the ethical and psychological consequences. Insurance firms will pay Small fortunes to help. Infertile couples conceive. But comparable payments for Long term psychiatric counselling to Cope with the stress these techniques can engender Are often unavailable. There s no guarantee that such Aid can Avert imprudent decisions to seek children or prevent subsequent divorces. Yet in another age Solomon drastic decree proved to be an effective psychological ploy in finding the True Mother. So in our own1 times we need to temper science with Wisdom. The opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons. On this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no May to be considered is representing the Clews of the stars and stripes or the United Stales government ,