talion
inion
Page 9 • Monday, September 21, 1998
ibryo selection suggests frightening implications
3 qualify for the: T "I •-*••• •
cess for choosing infant s gender opens door for genetic discrimination
'necologist in Lon-
R(K»3n lias begun
hat he calls the
; first 100-percent
m ; . ?ed sex-selection
for couples who
ke to choose the
. ‘. icir baby before it
M f RoomrrMsi ***;,
• rding to a Website
v - ng the procedure,
Rainsbury uses the existing in-
rtilization technique to take eggs
’ rm from a couple, fertilize the eggs
aratory and then choose the em-
th the preferred sex and implant it
m mother’s womb,
ays this is a rather simple process
1 help improve the quality of life for
aople and will only cost them the
. ;ent of $25,000.
- ^orTaer- sbury seems to have forgotten one
hough — he is not God.
right now the choices are limited
ex of the child, but what next? Sort-
' embryos based on hair color? Even-
. arents may be able to tweak their
d sperm until they get the perfect
TUi>. Future parents could purchase the
) guaranteed to produce a son that
the captain of the football team and
iter guaranteed to be Miss America
ly. The world would eventually be
■*n with a bunch of people who all
le Barbie and Ken.
onceive a child is a beautiful thing,
- ciding whether to have a male or fe-
reduces that beauty to going
q.' o the Chevy dealership and deciding
—?r to buy a truck or a car.
allC'. : , ems t ^ at j n thejj- haste to create a
e everyone will envy, people are
WEI®
beginning to go overboard. It is bad
enough people are compelled to impress
each other with material possessions, but
now they want to go out and purchase
the right embryo.
Rainsbury
said that “his
clinics have a
place in a world
where sex selec
tion is already
practiced, but in
a cruel and in
humane way be
cause of pres
sures to produce
a male heir. ”
Making sex
selection avail
able prior to
birth is not go
ing to solve this
problem. It will
contribute to it.
For example,
people in China
are persuaded to
have one child
in an attempt to
control the pop
ulation size,
therefore, every
one wants a
male heir to per
petuate their
family’s name.
If everyone is given the opportunity to
choose the sex of their children before they
is born and everyone chooses a male child,
there would be a some serious ramifica
tions down the line.
It is simply wrong for doctors to give
people who discriminate against women a
new tool to use in that process.
That is exactly what giving people the
opportunity to choose the sex of their baby
prenatally would do.
The goal is not to make it easier to dis
criminate against women, but to put an
end to discrimination and eventually have
women across the globe considered equal
to men. By advocating this practice, doc
tors are confirming the misconception that
women are less desirable and competent
than men.
It is understandable parents want to plan
the perfect family with two-point-five kids
and a dog in the backyard. The desire to
control everything, including the future, is
part of human nature.
The world is full of sur
prises, though, and it is
those little surprises
that make life so won
derful. Think of all of
the wonderful people
in the world who
would not be here had
there parents been giv
en the chance to sort
through their embryos
and choose a child.
Everyone on earth
right now is here be
cause nature was al
lowed to take its
course. If you asked
most people, they will
probably tell you they
are pretty glad they
were given that chance
to a life. So what
makes people think
they have the right to
interfere with another’s
chance to live.
This is not about
giving parents the
choice of their chil
dren’s sex, but taking away the surprise of
discovering a new human being, which is
an injustice to the parents and especially
the unborn child.
Elizabeth Strait is a junior
journalism major.
ELIZABETH
STRAIT
Graphic by Brad Graeber/The Battalion
MAIL CALL
od drive helps
lident victim
name is Helen Huddleston.
-•* "• ^ear on Sept. 20, 1997, I
, i automobile accident,
cnnsty. ir Deople offered to help me.
-named Jennifer Luton con-
nt fimir/illr several people for me.
as ngncuiih^ {wou|d |jke to thank Jen
ication: R.: )r helping to organizing the
antact Perse d r j ve with the American Red
i° ne: 84s: and ji ie Bryan-College Sta-
•b*Title ■ ancl The Battalion for
an Date:Asking information about the
ities: Surplus drive. I would like to thank
a purchasings ody for the support by do-
ntrai receive: as extraordinary as
jperty deca; bleed. You saved my life, by
Ss'aX:™ 6 3 P art ° f V° urSelf -
50 pounds.
eked scfte# Helen Huddleston
r k 1:00P.M.toSi Local resident
srnoon.
liberal police
'tect Americans
lore are poonse to Josh Maskow’s
.. .8 column:
n offended by Josh
Have YOU(t DW ’ s “Federal police cause
ssness” column. To com-
Faciillv Xmerica ’ s p resent |aw en '
1 nent agencies to those
Yes,itiMcted under Adolf Hitler is
■j s ci b! t *
liore illfonfe FBI and SWAT daily go into
avid \Vindf, r
situations none of us would even
dream of going into.
Mace canisters and car alarms
are more prevalent because of po
lice making citizens more aware of
crime, not because police agen
cies are less effective.
I think more research should
have been done on your part as
to why law enforcement is the
way it is.
Jared Anderson
Class of '00
Cancer awareness
helps students
I would like to thank everyone
who helped in the 1998 Testicu
lar Cancer Awareness Campaign:
Beth Miller for spreading the
message to the entire student
body through the Sept. 1 article
in The Battalion.
The Corps of Cadets, Resi
dence Life, Resident Hall Associ
ation and the Athletic Depart
ment for funding the fliers.
Residence Advisers, Athletics
and Corps Staff for distributing
the fliers.
Just a reminder to everyone
that if you have any questions,
you can call the Health Educa
tion Department at A.P Beutel
Health Center (847-9242) to get
answers or assistance in getting
medical attention.
Without the help of all these
organizations this campaign
could not have reached as many
individuals as it has. It has al
ready helped many students and
is bound to help more. Knowl
edge is the primary weapon in
fighting cancer, and with the sup
port of these organizations we
are helping to arm the students
of this campus. Early detection
is the key.
Thank you very much for help
ing us help others.
Margaret Griffith
Health Education Coordinator
Chad Steitle
Student Assistant
The Battalion encourages letters to the ed
itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in
clude the author’s name, class and phone
number.
The opinion editor reserves the right to edit
letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters
may be submitted in person at 013 Reed Mc
Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also
be mailed to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843-1111
Campus Mail: 1111
Fax: (409) 845-2647
E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu
Aggies may overlook
technology's problems
T he problem
with tech
nology to
day is that it is
not always reli
able or helpful.
Almost all
Aggies have ex- L|SA
perienced the nnoif
joy of their com-
puters crashing
right in the middle of a large
project or arriving late for an im
portant meeting because their
cars would not start.
But there are even more
frightening problems associated
with technology, such as the re
cent SwissAir crash that killed
229 people.
These were 229 people who
were planning to visit family,
take a business trip or maybe
just taking a break from it all.
But thanks to the inadequacies
of technology society takes for
granted, these people never
reached their destinations.
The point is, society is taking
these technologies for granted.
Flying to a far destination, turning
on the television when walking
into a room and sending e-mail to
a friend are all conveniences past
generations never dreamed of but
today’s college student could not
live without.
But should the average college
student be able to spend time in a
room without the background
noise of a television? Perhaps if
they did, they would find the
work they produce is superior to
what they do when concentrating
with only half of their mind.
Perhaps the reason America
has such a high incidence of psy
chological problems is because it
is more technologically oriented
than most other countries.
If people are counting on Inter
net chat rooms to fill the void in
their personal lives, they will nev
er develop the relational skills
that they need. And then they go
see their therapists trying to figure
out what their problems are.
There is a difference between
using technology and allowing
technology to be the master.
Of course, the other extreme is
no solution. Obviously, nobody in
their right mind would choose the
dirt and disease of the Middle
Ages over a comfortable, sani
tized existence. Would anyone re
ally want to take a three-week
boat trip, when they could save
the time by flying in a plane?
But in recent times, it almost
seems that without technology,
everybody would be lost.
Studies have shown that in the
past few years, American people
are more obese than ever. This re
ally is not surprising.
If a person drives to work in
the morning, spends all day
working at a desk with a comput
er, and goes home at night to
their e-mail and their television,
there can be no doubt about their
physical fitness — or lack thereof.
Ironically, those great modern
philosophers, the Simpson family,
contemplated what would hap
pen if one day all the children
stopped watching television. It
was amazing. People went out
side, started playing frisbee and
talking to each other. Society was
significantly improved.
Now this is not as far-fetched
as it might seem. There are a
few people who choose not to
have a television, claiming it
drains time away from their dai
ly life. Some people still choose
to type papers on a typewriters
because they find computers
cumbersome.
The situation calls for moder
ation. There is no reason to
throw out the helpful aid of a
computer, if it does not become
a required crutch.
For example, if an average Joe
Smith Aggie is doing his math
homework and happens to have
MAPLE installed on his comput
er, then it is okay to use the pro
gram to double-check his an
swers. It becomes a different
story if he has to run home
every time he needs to do a
math problem because he does
not have the mental capacity to
figure a proper tip.
The computer, as every profes
sor keeps saying, is not capable of
being a human brain.
Basically, Americans need to
look at how other countries man
age without the fastest, slickest,
best technology available. Picture
a world where there are only
three television stations and they
play really stupid programs. Pic
ture a world where the only ac
cess to e-mail is through a store
that sells it by the half-hour — for
very expensive prices.
That world would force people
to go out and find other hobbies.
People would learn how to make
things and build things and write
things and talk about things.
All of this would need to be in
moderation, sure. It would be sad
to have to miss the latest episode
of “South Park.”
Lisa Foox is a senior
journalism major.
STEWART
PATTON
Courts treat
parties fairly
T he nation’s
crime rate
has been
declining for the
past two years
because of better
crime prevention
and an aging
population.
However, the
mass of anti
crime rhetoric from politicians and
judicial candidates has created a
monster almost as evil as the crime
it has prevented: a fundamental
distrust of the justice system.
Many citizens view every “not
guilty” verdict as a criminal “get
ting away with it” and chalk up an
other one for the good guys when
the jury returns a “guilty” verdict.
Reality does not work like old
westerns, however, and the line
between good and bad is not as
easily discernible as the color of
the hat the cowboy is wearing.
When a crime takes place without
any witnesses, the only people
that know what happened are the
victim (s) and the perpetrator(s).
The purpose of a trial therefore is
to discover truth.
One of the sources of Ameri
ca’s distrust of the justice system
stems from the erroneous belief
that, simply stated, “half the peo
ple that really did it go free be
cause of some loophole in the
law. ” This remark shows several
misunderstandings about how the
law works.
First, the stories we have all
heard about the criminal who is set
free because of a simple spelling
mistake on a search warrant or
something equally trivial are sim
ply not true. The law is not as rigid
and cumbersome a creature as
many would have you believe.
Second, nearly 90 percent of
cases end with a plea bargain and
therefore never go to trial. Almost
all people accused of a crime
choose to serve the punishment
for a lesser charge rather than
have their day in court.
Since any rational person ac
cused of a crime he or she did not
commit would want to have a trial
instead of serving any sentence
unjustly, we can assume that the
most likely scenario is that a ma
jority of the accused who actually
proceed to trial in fact did not
commit the crime.
Third, Attorney Robert Shapiro
states in the prologue to his book
The Search for Justice that what
most people call “loopholes”, de
fense lawyers call the Constitution.
The framers of the Constitution
emphasized criminal rights be
cause they hated the abusive prac
tices of British criminal procedure.
We have seen what happens
when an oppressive regime seizes
power in a country with no Con
stitutional safeguards against gov
ernment power.
In The Gulag Archipelago, Alek
sandr Solzhenitsyn paints a horrify
ing picture of the Soviet Union in
the early twentieth century.
Solzhenitsyn describes mass arrests
without cause, torture to force pris
oners to sign fictional confessions
written by the interrogator, and
horrible prison conditions.
Constitutional protections for
the criminally accused are the
only barrier between our country
and the Soviet Union during the
reign of the Bolsheviks.
The media also has played a
large role in convincing America
that the justice system does not
work. The majority of rhetoric
heard during O.J. Simpson’s trial
favored the belief that Simpson
had committed the crime.
Rather than let the justice sys
tem decide guilt or innocence, the
media took that task upon them
selves and subjected their biased
findings to the masses.
Polls during the trial showed
Americans slightly favored a
“guilty” verdict. Such polls are en
tirely void of meaning, however,
because those who participated in
the polls were not exposed to every
fact and argument in the trial. The
members of the jury were the only
people on the planet qualified to
determine if Simpson did commit
the murders, and we must believe
that their decision that Simpson is
innocent was correct.
The United States has been so
successful because of the guaran
tees in the Constitution. If we are to
remain great, Americans must have
faith in the justice system and ac
knowledge the truth it produces.
Stewart Patton is a senior
sociology major.