Letters

Human Cloning Is Closer Than You Think

"People who want to clone their DNA so they can have a Mini-Me running around need to have their head examined." CHERYL ROTH Sugar Grove, Ill.

Cloning humans is incredibly dangerous [SOCIETY, Feb. 19]. Accepting our mortality and that of the ones we love is part of nature. How much more money are we going to invest in procedures that claim to keep us young? We are not talking about products here but about human lives! Those who desperately want a baby and can't have one ought to accept reality. There are millions of children who are in search of a home. LYA R. BONE New York City

When in vitro fertilization, sperm banks and surrogate motherhood first arrived on the scene, they all raised ethical questions. And while not everyone is satisfied with the answers, these methods for combatting infertility are being used widely today. Cloning is destined to become just another reproductive technique. Parents of clones will learn the same timeless lesson other parents have learned: each child is an individual. LYNNE LYBERGER Livermore, Calif.

I am the mother of a five-year-old who died from leukemia. A clone of my son created from a lock of his hair would never make it possible for me to forget that he is gone forever. STEPHANIE WOLF Memphis, Tenn.

And at what point in the cloning process does the human soul get implanted by the scientists? KAREN SLYMAN Exton, Pa.

Rather than asking what bad may come from cloning and genetic engineering, people should understand the breakthroughs that may result from them. Those suffering from illnesses might be cured. Critics should not make moral judgments in God's name. They ought to place themselves in the position of those who could benefit from new genetic procedures. It is immoral not to do anything to help if you know how to do it. PETTER SUND Turku, Finland

The notion that people could be cloned smacks of social engineering of a catastrophic dimension, the results of which can only further erode humanity. DWIGHT MESSNER Louisville, Ky.

Where is Mary Shelley when we need her? Please, somebody, let the cloning of humans be only the stuff of a gothic novel--today's tale of Frankenstein's monster--instead of the unspeakably true horror story you published. DONALD T. SANDERS Madison, Conn.

Pandora's box is never opened more profoundly than when a human being is created, regardless of the manner or means. In giving life to a child, either through old-fashioned sexual intercourse or with help from the modern miracles of science, every parent takes a turn at playing God. THOMAS EARL PRYOR Traverse City, Mich.

Those who are thinking about cloning themselves should heed the pronouncement of frustrated mothers: "May your children be just like you." MICHAEL SULLIVAN Essex Junction, Vt.

I recognize the potential benefits of cloning but am uneasy about its possible repercussions. What scares me the most is that cloning of humans and babies made to order will one day become commonplace. As long as the debate over cloning continues, it means we recognize the complex ethical issues involved. It's only when the debate stops, when cloning and all the technologies associated with it are accepted as unremarkable facts of life, that we are in trouble. ERIN DURKIN Boston

Cloning for the single purpose of making a copy of another person goes in the opposite direction of evolution. TERRY FRANCOISE BORETTI San Jose, Calif.

Six percent of your poll respondents think cloning is acceptable to create genetically superior humans. I don't want those people reproducing at all. JANICE LINDGREN Marshalltown, Iowa

I'm concerned that the people who seek the predictability, perfection and control that they imagine cloning offers will be the least able to cope with a malformed, sickly or disabled child, which is a not an unlikely outcome. I fear that human cloning could create a third class of humans--the unwanted, imperfect results of people's ultimately selfish act of attempting to reproduce themselves. Society could face a grave problem with how to care for such individuals. DORIS ULLMAN-HINDRICHS Lynden, Ont.

A Continent Under Siege

I commend you for your article on AIDS in Africa [SPECIAL REPORT, Feb. 12]. The writing was beautiful and moving. The AIDS pandemic here in South Africa is a greater Goliath than apartheid was. And on the wider continental front, we who live and labor in Africa and love this continent fear that this plague could be our undoing unless extensive help reaches us from other countries. Thank you for making that appeal. But as critical as outside help is, especially for the millions of victims, the even greater responsibility lies within Africa to teach, preach and practice safe sex. Unless the AIDS scourge is headed off at its source, namely rampant sexual promiscuity, no TIME special reports or outside help will halt the impending calamity. MICHAEL CASSIDY INTERNATIONAL TEAM LEADER AFRICAN ENTERPRISE Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

TIME has focused the world's attention on the scourge of AIDS in Africa. There is urgent need for all mankind to sit up and take notice of the epidemic, not only for charitable and humanitarian reasons but also practical ones. Given the fact that contacts among people of different countries and continents are frequent and close, the plague is bound to spread all over the globe unless action is taken to contain and eradicate it. While the onus lies on the governments of the countries concerned to educate the masses and create awareness about how to prevent TIME, the West can chip in with the funds required for treatment of patients. Further, concerted efforts are imperative to develop a vaccine as well as a cure for AIDS at affordable prices. AJIT PRATAP SINGH Ludhiana, India

Taking It to the Streets

Your article on the ousting of Philippine President Joseph Estrada [WORLD, Jan. 29] accurately described how a crowd of a few hundred thousand people claiming to represent the country could distort a democracy. I never participated in any of the rallies--not because I am an Estrada supporter but because I believe the impeachment trial represented a legal and more civilized means for justice to be meted out. I was surprised and disappointed when this process was discontinued; we've now ended up in an untidy limbo of a new, unexpected government in the hands of a leader who was sworn in by prosecutors, Senators and the protesters who pointedly ignored the laws that protect every Filipino's right to justice. MAYA RIVERA Makati City, the Philippines

Still Sharp as a Tack

Thanks to your article "Hearts and Minds," about the mental fog that can set in after heart-bypass surgery, friends and family are now looking at me for signs of cognitive impairment [MEDICINE, Feb. 19]. Five years ago, I had one quadruple bypass that was botched and six months later mended with a double bypass. Today, here I am, and apart from a lifelong hatred of the New York Times crosswords, I am fine. Maybe you should hold off publishing articles like this one until all the facts are known. Until then, Dick Cheney and I will be closely watched to see if I forget my keys or he forgets a meeting in the Oval Office. GERTRUDE VAN HOOYDONCK Orient, N.Y.

Fifteen years ago, I underwent quadruple-bypass surgery. Last summer I had a second bypass plus a valve job. I have fantasized about Kim Basinger for years. However, now I am overwhelmed by an inordinate desire to sing in French and solve quadratic equations. Could this be due to cognitive decline? LARRY VERGA Avon Lake, Ohio

Sounds like perfectly normal behavior to us--except maybe the fantasies about Kim Basinger.

The Tom-and-Nicole Split

Your item on the breakup of the marriage of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman [PEOPLE, Feb. 19] was suffused with a cynicism so vile it bordered on the pathological. Your assumption seemed to be that the marriage, because it was between two rich and famous people, was devoid of all meaning. There was not the slightest hint that these people's lives (and those of their children) are anything but fodder for tabloid speculation and ridicule. You made fun of the headlines the breakup has produced in other publications, but you had no right to assume superiority when your own reporting was so vapid, meanspirited and soulless. ROBERT E. RYDER Savannah, Ga.

We'll try to infuse our celebrity gossip with more soulful sincerity in the future.

Prescient Pop Song

Your item about Russell Crowe's song Wendy [PEOPLE, Feb. 19] was laughably incorrect and old news to fans of his band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. The song was written in 1995, well before Crowe met Meg Ryan, so there is no way it could be about his relationship with her as you implied. Maybe next time you'll do a little more groundwork. CHARLOTTE OSMAN New York City

Well, you know how it is. Any excuse to run a picture of Russell Crowe.

Arctic Pipe Dreams

Can we not leave one last place undesecrated by our insatiable lust for oil [NATION, Feb. 19]? If the U.S.'s national security depends on the exploration and drilling of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as one lobbyist would have us believe, shouldn't the country become less dependent on this nonrenewable source of energy? A majority of Americans responding to your poll opposed drilling in ANWR, yet oilmen George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will pursue ramming this exploration down America's throat. ANWR is not the solution to our energy problems; conservation and development of renewable sources of power are. JAMES BELL Los Angeles

I lived in aLaska for 12 years and was in ANWR and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Most people living in the Lower 48 have absolutely no comprehension of the sheer size of Alaska and the very small part of it that ANWR covers. I've seen caribou and other wildlife walking and feeding all around the existing Prudhoe Bay site. The state-of-the-art techniques being used to explore for oil, together with the realization by oil-producing companies that they cannot be reckless in their approach, suggest to me that we can have both the wilderness and the oil at the same time. MICHAEL J. MAEHL Kennewick, Wash.

Sacrificing ANWR to oil development is not a long-term solution to America's energy problems. Our nation is addicted to petroleum, with an ever increasing habit, and even the most optimistic estimates of what might be recovered from anwr would only briefly delay the inevitable crisis. Selling the family jewels for another fix may hold a momentary attraction for the junkie in the throes of withdrawal, but it is always a bad idea. Perhaps our evangelist-in-chief should propose a 12-step program instead. EARL P. JONES Redding, Calif.

The hell with caribou in Alaska! Don't I have a right to all the energy I need to run my SUV, VCR and DVD? We can put a picture of a caribou on a new nickel so our kids can ask us what one is. Isn't that the American way? ALLEN FRISHMAN Mountaindale, N.Y.

For the Freshest Cup of Joe

Your story on new inventions "What Will They Think of Next?" [SPECIAL REPORT, Dec. 4] incorrectly referred to the Swissmar Alpenrost as "the first home coffee roaster." I patented the invention of the first home roaster in 1985. It is a countertop device capable of roasting coffee in five to eight minutes. My roaster allows one to view the beans as they are heated (and to vary the roasting time). It requires less counter space, and its roasting chamber can be cleaned in the dishwasher. HAROLD GELL Silver Spring, Md.

Gell's Fresh Roast coffee-bean roaster is licensed by Fresh Beans, 760-723-2826.