Re: Yea, Harkin! (was Cloning)
Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Wed, 12 Mar 1997 23:07:31 -0800 (PST)
"This has enormous potential for good, There should be no limits on human
knowledge, none whatever. To those like President Clinton who say we can't
play God, I say OK, fine, you can take your side alongside Pope Paul V who
in 1616 tried to stop Galileo, they accused Galileo of trying to play God
too. [...] I don't think cloning is demeaning to human nature, to attempt
to limit human knowledge is demeaning. It's not legitimate to try to stop
cloning. What nonsense, what utter, utter nonsense to think we can hold
up our hand and just say "stop". Cloning will continue, the human mind will
continue to inquire into it. Human cloning will take place and it will take
place in my lifetime, and I don't fear it at all. I want to be on the side
of the Galileos and those who say the human mind has no limits, rather than
trying to stop something that's going to happen anyway."
--US Senator Tom Harkin, (D) IA
KGO radio replayed part of that speech in the news tonight. Until now, I
was beginning to despair that libertarian voices on this issue would be
drowned in the flood of anti-tech I'd been hearing. But the facts not
only that he said it, but that it got airplay, encourage me. Among the
rarest events humans may occasionally witness, like solar eclipses and
bright comets, you may include hearing me praise a Democrat: your cousin
done good today, John. Of course tomorrow he'll want me to pay for the
reasearch, but hey, the quote will always be a good one.
--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
<http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>