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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1999)
Battalion O PINION Page 9 • Wednesday, November 3, 1999 d).This rateappis it an additional 5 d to end to qualif Should Ron Harris' new Website attempt to sell infertile parents 'CHILDREN? 5 WANTED >w hiring campus reprs Position includes ? Jm-5pm, Mon.-Fri, neat appearance, lr, t communications sk*. 1 ty Drive (across fromhj i tor more information j help promote the SNl light construction,; kitchen stall Jed Tues -Fri. 9anvS3(tr| at and Wed,Fri,Slt i 79-7586 ORCYCLE 9 New tires, piston, i >y Cheap ttansportito i 5025 993, tow mileage. Ksj PETS ind Juvenile Raintx» fc| Jriet- $250 and 5300'k-v nens. Cats, Dogs Mr al Shetter-775-5755 r Glider Healttiy is ase F'ython &custoiii atti 595-8989. ipptes, AKC, E Gem,: digree shots, coin ht ►350. caryStamu edu ( DMMATES lor spnng. JtJdrrvO-:. ily $t 70/mo *1/41)* Ci 3txJrm/tt)th, near camp ) +1/3bills. 693-9616 K' • spring 2bdrm2titti /2bills. W/D. bus-ioute in : nmates, own room, hoHt nd cul-de-sac, nice negte NO R on Harris is, first and fore most, a busi nessman. But as business men go, he is one of the most tasteless, money-hungry and amoral of the bunch. He seems to live Harris' auction for eggs exploits infertility for personal financial gain i/2bth. S255/mo Jercs: 362-9582(H). 862W(0| 3txJrm/lbth. S30JW *5 f ^ ™ ASAP 6808966 lor spring 20-iWtO 693-100201) m ^ ad 3bdtm./3» m nwiti Ashley 69F6I79 ate neeaec • Models can sell eggs if they choose; Harris not guilty of wrong lall Kristen TIWMi nmates lor spng y or April lor spring. Great teawn® 5-2481 A ! ERVICES fashion photogra pher who has nade a career M springsemesteiPayi-jy^ 0 f taking pictures Of litles. Urgent! 693-342V ° ^ — roeautiful women is new 3bdrm. dupleit. I , . te 694-7701 ooking into a career :h|ange. Ron Harris’ iVebsite, which de- e to anywhere in the ti)Uted last Monday, is a __7irtual bar where the i Driving Lots-oMmw )n ] y things on tap are eggs from models &sat Fruepm-Bpmissrhat Hams has hand-picked. 30pm). inside Ban* [couples can bid on these eggs, which ste 217 646-6117 siafe the genes of current models. But de- 3i7). ipite how shallow and overpaid these ^respective parents may seem, Harris and he bidders should have the right to contin- or t u. game. nove | ty The same American culture which /ANTED tu game, freshman 1^5 pl acec j suc h a high priority On physi cal beauty has mandated those with icif ca^-rai? 618 " none y can have or do what they want - if they pay for it. GHT LOSS tailed “Darwin’s natural selection at its ery best” by Harris’ Website, bids for the (all and have mote rimPlus same formula;s*' - Effective for Diet 8 /CS Cash- Check- CreW eggs begin at $15,000, but Harris already has been given a bid $42,000 for one of the eggs. The models who participate in the auction receive the fee. Beauty is their asset, and they have the right to profit from it. Federal law pro hibits the sale of human organs but not sperm or eggs. Some critics of the auction, including American Society of Reproductive Medicine spokesperson Sean Tipton, have said soci ety has reached the point of accepting the idea of compensation for eggs or sperm but not a sliding scale on the basis of what at tributes donors bring to the table. Current sperm and egg donors have profiles available which include pictures, SAT scores, the donor’s athletic ability and other traits prospective parents may consider important. There is no harm in making couples pay more for superior merchandise. The parents who invest in this scheme are making a loving gesture — a substantial pre-emptive monetary contribution to their ERIC ANDRAOS/Tm Battalion child’s future before birth. Not many par ents can display that kind of tangible love. There is nothing wrong with loving parents wanting to give their future little boy or girl a head start on their looks. These future children obviously are val- „ ued by their parents. The only dangers presented to these tro phy children are those of overbearing par ents. How would the parents of a little girl feel if they paid the equivalent of an Ivy League college education for Heidi Klum’s ova, but their daughter suffered from a weight problem? However, parents who resent their children not meeting expectations are not limited to ova customers. Any chil dren of successful parents are subject to the same scrutiny. Of course, as Nancy Etcoff, an author on the subject of beau ty, points out, paying for the genes of beautiful people is not a sure thing. There is no guarantee these children will have the desirable traits of their biological predecessors. Parents must be aware of this before they pay. The sperm of male models will soon ap pear for sale on the site, subject to the same conditions as the eggs currently for sale. So bargain-hunting parents, saddle up to the bar — this babe’s for you! Jeff Webb is a senior journalism major. by that tried-and-true motto of many used-salesmen and shameless self- promoting entrepreneurs: “Anything for a buck.” The longtime fashion and Playboy photographer has started a Website which acts as a middleman for infertile women and prospective egg donors. However, these are not your every day egg donors. The women whose eggs are auc tioned off are models looking for a new source of income. With a high enough bid, an infer tile woman can theoretically increase the possibility of having an exception ally beautiful child. The problem with the site is not its support of in-vitro fertilization or Harris’ promotion of the beauty of his egg donors. What is wrong about Harris' prac tice is his use of the physical attrac tiveness of his models, coupled with society’s preference of beautiful peo ple, to fill his own wallet. With egg bids ranging from $15,000 to a possible maximum of $150,000, Harris is trying to conduct his operation at a level where money is not a factor. This leads to a lot of easy money being thrown around by wealthy peo ple in need of an egg donor, a possibili ty he is counting on. Even though all the money paid for the egg goes to the donor, Harris adds his own 20-percent finder’s fee on top of the final price. In another shrewd business move, Harris did not make his site a simple meeting place for potential donors and receivers. His Website is an auction house where bidders fight it out. And as their bids increase, so does Harris’ 20-percent fee. This money-making scheme re moves the last bit of credibility Harris might have as a objective assistant to infertile couples. Anyone still doubting the greedy motives behind Harris’ site need look no further than the site itself. To make even more money off of his online egg auction, Harris is posting advertisements which can generate in come for him, even if he never sells a single egg. The Website currently has two ad vertising banners, but all signs point to him adding more and trying to make a buck off of advertising everything from Viagra to Bloomingdales. The fact that his site received more than 1 million visitors in a single day makes it attractive to potential adver tisers, and one of the banners currently on Harris' site is for a video-exercise program he started in the 1980s. Like the shady businessman he is, Harris generates all these advertising dollars under the guise of helping in fertile women have children. Finder’s fees and advertising rev enues aside, Harris may hit the jackpot with another money-making function of the site. Besides being a fashion photographer and producer of several Playboy videos, Harris is working on a book called Naked Power. Harris said the book is “about why beauty exists and how knowing this might help you achieve happiness.” Harris himself understands why people primarily would be visiting his site — namely to find an egg donor — and how to use that to help him build his personal income. Recent news reports have ques tioned the authenticity of Harris’ egg- auctioning service. Citing the crudeness of the site’s de sign and the fact he has received only one serious bid, many wonder if Har ris really plans to continue with the ova auctioning. Nevertheless, Harris has found the model that lays the golden egg. By hosting such a highly visited site and getting his face in all the papers, Harris has created a peerless platform for hawking his new book, sure to hit stores just in time for Christmas shopping. Once again, Harris is undermining the good intentions of his Website. He is selfishly looking to increase book sales and fatten his own pocket- book off infertile women and curious visitors to his site. For Harris, the blurred line be tween justified infertility assistance and unethical greed-based beauty auctions is a dotted one he is more than happy to sign on. “Anything for a buck.” Eric Dickens is a junior English major. Nazi’ not term to be used nonchalantly MAIL CALL Pick up your copy today MARK PASSWATERS Directory >le f you ordered Campus quested delivery, deliv- lin the next few days. impus Directories, you them up at 015 Reed per copy. (Please bring i your part number, nber, account name, ct person and phone directories should be nts, administrators yellow pages. [ n 1933, the National So cialist Work- rs Party came ) power in ermany. Over le next 12 ?ars this :oup of people Dmmitted pos hly the great- ;t acts of genocide the world ad ever witnessed. Following the orders of their ader, Adolf Hitler, followers of lis party’s doctrine slaughtered ns of millions of people in the ame of Aryan supremacy. In their linds, the “master race” was justi- ad in eliminating anyone who ood in the way of their aims. Sixty-six years later, the word 'Jazi” is used casually. People at- ch it to those whom they do not 5ree with or are opposed to them. When someone calls the Park- griraffic and Transportation ?rvices “parking Nazis,” or Jerry dnfeld refers to the “Soup azi,” it can almost be excused i ignorance posing as humor, 'hen educators refer to parts of e current governmental system ey do not like as “Nazism,” no reuses can be made. As astounding as it sounds, •me more liberal members of so- ety — including some teachers - have adapted this practice to ascribe those who they do not agree with. Anyone who considers him or herself an educator should have a far better grasp of history. Throwing the term “Nazi” around loosely not only is self- serving; it is unacceptable. Nazism is one of the most insidious con cepts ever thought of, and people should respect the force such a word holds. Using “Nazi” to de fame people of a different political viewpoint weakens society’s mem ory of the lives lost at the hands of the real Nazis. The basic premise of the Na tional Socialism philosophy was found in the superiority of the Ger man citizen. As Hitler himself stated in his twisted testament Mein Kampf, Germans were the example of pure Aryanism and were superior to all other races of humanity. As a re sult, millions of “inferior” people were slaughtered. Hitler’s desires were stated plainly in his book, and his Nazi underlings carried them out with ruthless efficiency. As a result, names like Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen are etched into our memories. Six mil lion Jews and at least 15 million Slavs (most of them Russians) died at the hands of the Nazis less than 70 years ago. What the Nazis did should still be firmly etched in our col lective psyche, and the word “Nazi” should be used only in the strongest of cases. Instead, some Americans use it as a label to condemn more conservative mem bers of our society. Anyone who uses such a word in this fashion should be given a history book to read. Neo-Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klan are deserving of this black mark: someone who has an “R” behind his or her name on C- SPAN does not. What the Nazis did should be firmly etched in our memory. Is there racism in this country? Without question. Could some still exist , in the highest levels of gov ernment? Perhaps. But saying those who do not like people of different skin colors are as evil as the people who rounded up millions and executed them is disgusting. Individuals who refer to people who do not think like them as “Nazis” are in the business of self inflation. Those who support pro grams many Republicans oppose have no business comparing the GOP members of the 105th Con gress to Heinrich Himmler, Rudolph Hess and Hermann Goering. While Republican views may be offensive to some, they do not deserve to be condemned in such a fashion. Nei ther does the guy at the corner store who says, “No soup for you!” The horrors Nazi Germany in flicted should be taught to all stu dents so it is not forgotten. Com paring Nazi crimes with such matters as not putting “mixed race” boxes on a birth certificate is not completing this task. In fact, it actually helps to mini mize their crimes. Disliking people for their skin color may not be ac ceptable, but neither is comparing them to people who slaughtered people because of their skin color. This is still the United States, and people are still entitled to ex press their opinions, no matter how unsavory. The Nazis not only expressed their beliefs; they put them into practice. This crucial dif ference separates the Nazis from common society. Minimizing the message and ac tions of the Nazis by comparing them to today’s problems is horri bly wrong and sets a frightening precedent. Eventually, what the word “Nazi” stood for will be gar bled, increasing the chances some one will be allowed to repeat the Nazis’ actions. Mark Passwaters is an electrical engineering major. Trying to convert others intolerant In response to Chris Huffines Nov. 1 column. Huffines’ defense of the South ern Baptist Convention's resolution to increase efforts to convert other religions, namely the Jewish reli gion, is deplorable. As Abraham Foxman said, it is arrogant for any religion to believe itself the “cor rect” belief system. ROBERT HYNECEK/Thi: Battalion It is even more arrogant for reli gions to impose their beliefs on anyone else. The Southern Baptists’ belief that Jewish beliefs are any less cor rect than Southern Baptists’ own is the same kind of thinking which leads to, as Foxman put it, "the backdrop of intolerance towards Jews in Europe." It is ridiculous for the Southern Baptists to think they help Jewish people by attempting to convert them. Jewish beliefs have been around for more than 2,000 years and need no assistance from Southern Baptists. Huffines' state ment that the Southern Baptist at tempts at conversion are signs of respect is outrageous. The attempt to change some one's beliefs, especially on their holy days, is like spitting in their face, not a sign of "love and re spect" as Huffines puts it. It is equally ignorant of Huffines to attack Foxman's support of Jew ish solidarity an affront to Jewish people. Not supporting any group’s solidarity is an attack on that group. The Southern Baptists and every other denomination that actively converts must realize that if there is such a thing as the one correct be lief system, be it religious in nature or not, everyone will come to it. This will happen not because it has the best marketing division of all belief systems, but by its own virtue of being the one. Terrell Rabb Class of ’02 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 McDonald 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 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com