"CHARLIE...FIRST TIME, LONG TIME"

AUDIO INTERVIEW: with Bill McKibben (Onpoint, 4/30/03, NPR)

Bill McKibben has just written a new book, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, that conservative might be expected to embrace, because it's anti-bioengineering. But, as our review suggests, there are some significant problems with his arguments.

One that we raise but don't explore fully, because incompetent to do so, is the implausability of his scientific claims. Luckily, Brother Murtaugh is competent, and has WBUR on his speed-dial (listen to the link above). Hopefully Mr. Murtaugh is right about how difficult, maybe even impossible, it will prove to make fundamental changes to humanity. Unfortunately though, Mr. McKibben is almost certainly right that this won't stop us from trying, and though he doesn't worry about this aspect of it, the prospect of the dead fetuses--human or hybrid--that will pile up while we're engaged in the science should give the rest of us some pause. We can't treat each other like meat in the lab and expect to treat each other with dignity outside of it. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 2, 2003 10:08 AM