The Battalion Tuesday -June 10, 199 Teen gives birth at prom, leaves baby in trash bin FREEHOLD, NJ. (AP) — The music played on, and the young woman in the dark, loose-fitting dress danced with her prom date, looking as if she were hav ing lots of fun. But in the marble-tiled ladies’ room at the catering hall, a maintenance worker was mak ing a horrible discovery: blood all over a stall, a newborn baby dead in a trash bin. Authorities are awaiting test results before deciding whether to charge the 18-year-old moth er with killing her newborn son and then returning to the dance floor at the Lacey Township High School prom Friday night as if nothing had happened. “The baby was alive during the birthing process,” Robert Honecker, a Monmouth County prosecutor, said Monday. “The medical examiner must deter mine, could the baby have exist ed independent of the mother.” Among other things, investi gators are testing the toilet wa ter to determine whether the full-term, 6-pound, 6-ounce boy was drowned. The Star-Ledger of Newark and WCAU-TV in Philadelphia identi fied the mother as Melissa Drexler of Forked River. Although author ities are treating the case as a po tential homicide, the teen-ager was allowed to remain in the cus tody of her parents. “They’re very upset,” a woman answering the telephone at a Drexler residence in Forked River said. She said that she is Melissa’s grandmother and that she hopes the teen is getting some help. She hung up without giving her name. No one emerged Monday af ternoon from the Drexlers’ one- story house in a neighborhood of modest homes. Flowers hung from planters around the en trance of the home, a brown wood-sided house with a blue- gray door and shutters. At the high school Monday, students said they had been un aware the 5-foot-7, 130-pound girl was even pregnant. “She really didn’t look preg nant to me at all,” said Becky, a junior who saw the girl at the prom. She would not give her last name. Nor did anyone realize when she returned from the ladies’ room at the Garden Manor cater ing hall in Aberdeen Township that she had just given birth. “She was sitting near me and my friends, talking and laughing. She looked like she was having fun,” said Jamie Dries, 16. “She looked like nothing was wrong.” Clinton fears ‘malevolent’ cloning WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton said Mon day he wants to ban the cloning of human beings but allow some cloning research while Americans debate the moral implications. The president proposed legislation that would ban cloning “for the purposes of creating a child.” It would di rect the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to re port in 4 1 / 2 years on whether the ban should continue. Clinton stopped short of banning the cloning of an imals and certain human genes for important biomed ical research. “There is nothing inherently immoral or wrong with these new techniques, used for proper pur poses,” he said during a Rose Garden ceremony to re ceive the commission’s report. Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Mich., has said he would in troduce stronger legislation than Clinton’s. His plan would forbid human cloning and human embryo re search related to cloning Clinton urged private researchers to avoid attempting to clone a human baby, saying that threatens “the sacred family bonds at the very core of our ideals and our society.” “At its worst, it could lead to misguided and malevo lent attempts to select certain traits, even to create cer tain kinds of children, to make our children objects rather than cherished individuals,” Clinton said. Clinton’s proposal is based on the bioethics panel’s conclusion that it is “morally unacceptable” to create a child through somatic-cell nuclear transfer cloning and implant it into a woman’s body for delivery. Scottish scientists used such a process to create Dolly, a sheep, the first mammal cloned from adult cells. Before Dolly was born healthy and Clinton normal, her creator had failed 277 times. Some of the duplicate lambs were born with severe and lethal birth defects. Dr. Harold Shapiro, chairman of the bioethics panel, said commissioners had difficulty weighing whether their moral and ethical reservations about cloning “were sufficient for us to suggest a legislative solution for the moment.” “We all understand there are moral views that many of us have, which we do not want to translate into law out of respect for those who have totally different views,” Shapiro said. “We are very sensitive to that issue.” McVeigh Continued from Page 1 Capt. Jesus Rodriguez, his chest loaded with medals, took the stand to describe McVeigh as “an outstanding soldier” who helped save a fellow sol dier’s life and was cool—and accurate — under enemy fire. “He did what he was told,” said Ro driguez, who chose McVeigh as his personal gunner. “He anticipated what had to be done, took pride in his work. He had a genuine care for how we looked in front of the company.” And, a grinning Rodriguez said, McVeigh liked strawberry Pop-Tarts, which he would get in the mail dur ing the war and share with Ro driguez, to the ribbing of other sol diers who joked that McVeigh was kissing up to the boss. Under cross-examination, the vet erans acknowledged they had not seen McVeigh since at least 1992 and knew nothing about his life, thoughts or plans in what prosecutors say is the critical year before the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred R Murrah Fed eral Building. But they did detect warning signs. Bradley gunner William Dilly said un der cross-examination McVeigh was always urging him to read The Turner Diaries, a racist novel that begins with the bombing of a federal building by revolutionaries. He also described how McVeigh had an odd habit of tak ing battlefield pictures of dead Iraqis. And one defense witness, McVeigh’s childhood friend Vicki Hodge, hinted at McVeigh’s changed personality when he left the Army in late 1991 after a failed effort to qualify for the elite Special Forces. “He seemed maybe just a little bit disillusioned,” said Ms. Hodge, who hasn’t seen McVeigh much since that time. When she did know him — from fourth grade until they parted ways af ter high school — McVeigh was the class down and a gangly teen who had the nickname “Chicken McVeigh,” a play on Chicken McNuggets. It was later shortened by friends to just "Chicken.” “I loved Tim,” she said. "He’s my second brother. And I still always will love him.” Two teachers testified McVeigh was a bright, friendly and outgoing student who got high test scores and was vot ed "most talkative” by his senior class. Vincent Capparra also spoke of McVeigh’s friendliness as an employ ee at an armored car service in the mid-1980s. But the testimony took a dark turn when he told how McVeigh caught children throwing egg-filled snowballs and warned one that he “could really blow up his house.” The defense penalty phase is pected to wrap up with witnesses plaining McVeigh’s anger over government siege at Waco, wl came exactly two years before federal building bombing thatki 168 people. The same jury that last weekci victed McVeigh of murder and ci spiracy in the blast is expected toI)mt| gin deliberating as early |V| Wednesday whether he should die injection or be sentenced toli prison without parole. The defense presentation mi counter 2 112 days of gut-wrenchi testimony from survivors describi their shattered lives, and theportra al of McVeigh as an cowardly, ang bomber willing to kill children avenge Waco and spark a secoi American Revolution. Lead attorney Stephen ]on made it clear McVeigh would m take the stand, nor would hissisti Jennifer. But their father, Willia McVeigh, would. Among those testifying Mondi was former Army buddy How Thompson, who said he for McVeigh to be outspoken about curW rent events, but who never forcedh|-,p| views on others. “He was a soldier’s soldier, Thompson said. Weather Outlook THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Partly cloudy High: 94° Low: 74° Partly cloudy High: 93° Low: 75' Partly cloudy High: 92° Low: 76° Sk By Quatro mom! wmen pic you get YOUR 1 FftosreP? IMCEMSE & OILS * WIMDCHIMES RELIGIOUS AP I EHE GREEM MAM METEORITES GREAI Sll VER JEWEL RY EVEM A DIMOSAUR EGG /Jj Now on The Battalion’s web page A 24-hour, multimedia news service for the Internet from The Associated Press • -A comprehensive, up-to-the-minute news report combining the latest AP stories with photos, graphics, sound and video. - Headlines and bulletins delivered as soon as news breaks. http://bat-web. tamu.edu FALL LSAT • 46 hours of instruction plus free extra tutoring. •'4 full-length LSAT’s administered under test conditions plus computer analyzed score reports. • 14 additional real LSAT’s. • Maximum class size of 15. • Effective LSAT taking skills. • All classes are live, even makeups. No videos here. We’ve redesigned our course for killer improvements! THE PRINCETON REVIEW (409) 696-9099 info.cs@review.com Prepared to Be a Doctor? 9 out of 10 Alumni Recommend Kaplan MCAT. “Kaplan helped me get into med school with the best review by far. They have it all: great materials, thousands of practice questions with explanations and top teachers!” superior materials expert teachers convenient classes -Lea A. Fasano, MD, MPH Pediatrician Kaplan MCAT Alumnus Call today to enroll in the #1 MCAT course! KAPLAN 1 -800-KAP-TEST www.kaplan.com KANM 99.9 FM Cable The Alternative DJ Informational Meeting DJ Positions Available Creativity Welcomed No Experience Necessary Everyone Invited to Apply Wednesday, June 11, 1997 7:30 p.m. 301 Rudder registererf^«