LETTERS

LETTERS Slippage The editorial entitled "Carter's Crisis — and Ours" in the September issue seemed to me to have a connection with the letters, pro and con, about capital punishment. For many...

...But unless you're in favor of private gun ownership, you're not really promoting self-determination...
...the very situation the firearm was designed to eliminate...
...Just as there is the potential for tremendous benefits from the use of nuclear energy, the uses of synpests in medicine and as an energy "source" can be tremendous...
...The patentability of life is not a subject that can be discussed with any hope of a consensus...
...Larry Schor Meadville, Pennsylvania Anti-Zionism We were disturbed by Carolyn Toll's article, "American Jews and the Middle East Dilemma" (August issue), and the sophistry therein...
...Of course the Vietnamese officials feared that the ethnic Chinese might side with their ancestral land in case of war with China...
...The basic conflict between the two sides of the abortion issue has to do with the human-ness of the fertilized egg as it develops in the womb...
...Recuperation of well-being is dependent upon a change from haphazard to hygienic habits of living rather than N.H.I...
...The appalling truth is that if Carter is the nominee in 1980, we have nowhere to go...
...and in this case the Republicans would execute a stroke of genius if they defaulted, because, surely, they haven't had a better President in office (considering his deference to, his accommodation of, the Republicans' two chief constituents: the business community, the military) since Cal Coolidge...
...Hitler's problems with all those "rich Jews...
...In our opinion, many of the Breira founders and leaders are self-hating Jews who, by their involvement with Breira, try to prove their loyalty to the New Left and world universalism...
...Even more disquieting is the casual reference to the Chinese as "controlling the rice trade" and coming from the "well-to-do-segment of society...
...Is it possible that our general level of civilization is slipping, and that these trends are indicators of the slippage...
...Scientific evidence also points to the fact that, up to a certain point, the embryo is totally dependent upon the mother and cannot sustain life outside the womb...
...What the book actually and correctly says is that the press exposure of Watergate couldn't have happened in Britain, but neither the authors nor any other informed people doubt that the dirty tricks of Watergate could have happened in Britain...
...Toll seems either incredibly naive or engaged in a futile bout of wishful thinking in believing the ambiguous promises the PLO made to her...
...Steve Roane Larchmont, New York Don Luce replies: I agree with Steve Roane that racial persecution is ugly wherever it occurs...
...Luce's casual attitude toward it also disturbs me...
...However, with the arrival of economic interests in the scientific arena, who will regulate the uses and the range of the experimentation...
...Is it possible that genetic engineering will be the first example of responsible corporate enterprise...
...In this respect, he essentially ignores the nature of the biologist's education: to describe life in objective language, and to do this with enough precision that other scientists can duplicate a particular experiment and derive comparable results...
...Most anti-abortionists base their opinion on dogmatic religious grounds, while pro-abortionists typically point to scientific evidence...
...Obviously, Breira never had the support of American leftist Jews that they imagined they had, otherwise they could have operated and flourished quite well outside the mainstream, as did the peace movement...
...That reminds me of our officials who, fearing the ethnic Japanese, gave them the "choice" of internment in camps...
...Bulk orders for ten copies or more will be filled at the special rate of $ 1 each, postpaid...
...Directing our anger at the Vietnamese may help to ease our own collective feelings of guilt about the destruction our country carried out against Vietnam...
...Yet it is among the most common species found in the human intestines...
...reason, I understood, was that too little was known to prevent the catastrophic outbreak of a freak disease that could spread with the speed and devastation of a plague...
...Rifleman Hey, folks, you gotta decide where you stand...
...What, all million of them...
...And I quite agree that if there is a food shortage in Vietnam, food should be sent and the Vietnamese should be assisted in rebuilding their agriculture...
...In Cleveland, a girl born seventeen weeks premature recently celebrated her first birthday...
...With no place to go, most of us have been silent...
...You can rail against big oil, big government, and General Foods...
...If history is any kind of forecast, I, for one, am more concerned for my safety from rampaging synpests than for the patentability of life...
...No matter how many times the word health is repeated, these medically dominated plans cannot assure anyone of well-being...
...as a human being, no one wants to be another Oppenheimer...
...He refers to the American "guilt feelings that persist five years after Watergate" and adds that "the book tells us that...
...our power elite has a can't-lose proposition...
...Until repeat offenders are put into a permanent alternative society, we'll continue to have armed crime...
...The point is that, while British politics are just as corrupt as American politics, if on a smaller scale, the British press is much weaker than the American press, partly because of stronger laws of contempt of court, official secrecy, and personal defamation, and partly because of a longer tradition of closed government...
...Single copies of this issue are available at $1.50, postpaid...
...And I agree that the Vietnamese government bears much responsibility for the plight of the Vietnamese refugees — both Chinese and Vietnamese...
...No one, though, seems to have approached the question from a purely logical standpoint...
...At what stage should it be considered "human...
...More importantly, though, such a society must first acknowledge the sexual activity of its youth and develop effective measures to conquer the widespread ignorance concerning other means of birth control...
...It is about time for "liberals" of all varieties to find the courage to ask the hard questions and make the hard decisions on this issue...
...But too many of us for too long have been content to lay the blame on people and governments "out there" without asking hard questions about our own country's policies...
...Our main bone of contention with the article, however, is that Toll is laboring under a false premise...
...Who is to decide...
...She is embittered because the established Jewish organizations did not welcome or applaud Breira's dissident views nor sponsor their speakers...
...Executive Director, The Progressive Foundation, 315 West Gorham Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53703...
...I was not disturbed by the tendency to replace original sin or sun spots with the American government as the source of all evil in the world...
...I say no...
...What Howard does not mention is that most of the recombinant DNA experimentation is conducted on the microorganism, E. coli...
...The sooner this is done, the sooner we can stand together in our respect and defense of life...
...I reflected on that...
...What disturbs me is that so many Jews are willing to accept the Pentagon as a legitimate model...
...Jaffe Valley Center, California Patenting life This letter is prompted by Ted Howard's article, "Patenting Life," in the September issue...
...Nor did I suggest that dissidents should be applauded by the mainstream...
...We want to extend a cordial welcome to readers looking at their first issue of The Progressive, and assure them that our contents will revert next month to the full range of topics to which this magazine is usually devoted...
...The point of my article was that Jewish dissidents of social conscience feel alienated from the monolithic structure of the organized Jewish community — but also from the Left because of its anti-Semitic flavor...
...What I believe to be of much greater concern is the danger of lab-created "synpests...
...Sound bodily processes are not the end result of the application of toxic pills, noxious injections, deadly radiation, and surgical removal of vital organs...
...However, we believe that a truly enlightened and progressive society must acknowledge the rights of both the unborn child and the woman...
...We believe reasonable and logical reflection on these questions can only lead to one answer: To deny the human-ness of the fertilized human egg is to deny the fact of our common beginnings as simple, single cells, each with its own unique human genetic makeup...
...What would we then say as to the human-ness of the "clumps of cells" that we abort today...
...And as long as paroled convicts live in my neighborhood, drink wine in the park, and kick open doors, I'll stay armed, thank you...
...If your view is from an ivory tower or a father-knows-best suburb, you probably don't know what a jungle the city can be...
...But our primary goal should not be showing women how to escape responsibility, but educating both women and men as to the nature of their shared responsibility...
...Antiwar For an antiwar anthology titled Peace Is Our Profession, I am seeking poetry and short prose pieces by war veterans and war resisters, published and unpublished, written during the thirty years' holocaust in Indochina...
...Such people should not be bludgeoned with a compulsory medical insurance tax against their will...
...Rather, robust physical condition flows from a daily hygienic existence attuned to physiological principles...
...Even more insidious than radiation, and with far greater problems of containment — there are no biological geiger counters — synpests pose an incalculable danger to life and the environment...
...It is my impression that the only way this objectivity can be achieved is through a largely biochemical approach that leaves the discussion of life or non-life to the philosophers and lets the pure scientist get on with the job of observation and explanation...
...That kind of thinking permits the sort of name-calling the Pragos indulge in...
...Every new technology seems to have an inherent danger...
...The U.S...
...But it must also make this as painless as possible by providing for mandatory paid maternity leave for all women and simplifying procedures for putting unwanted children up for adoption...
...Fred Clarke Denver, Colorado Correction Nicholas Burnett, author of "Illegal Aliens Come Cheap," in the October 1979 issue of The Progressive, was incorrectly identified in that issue as Richard Burnett...
...We apologize to the writers whose scheduled articles had to be deferred at the last minute...
...Howard approaches the subject of life from a purely philosophical point of view...
...to the July issue, which contains excerpts from a number of "friend-of-the-court" briefs filed in behalf of The Progressive, and to the September issue, which contains excerpts from our own appeals brief...
...The comment about Carter's crisis shows an unmistakable trend toward disruption and hostility in our society due to unresolved and worsening problems...
...We believe the issue is best resolved by trying to answer one simple question: If the embryo is not human at the time it can be legally aborted, then what exactly is it...
...It must make these means readily available to all...
...Heal thyself The Progressive and others are making much ado about national health insurance, national health care, national health delivery...
...Everett W. Whealdon Port Townsend, Washington Britain's press There is an unfortunate misunderstanding in William Hines's review of the British thalidomide book Suffer the Children (July 1979...
...Will this new generation of technology be controlled by economic interests...
...Even more disturbing are the great strides medical science itself has made in the care of premature babies...
...it is a contradiction in terms analogous to the Pentagon agreeing to sponsor a speaking tour by David Dellinger during the Vietnam travesty...
...A statute which underwrites a portion of the exorbitant charges of hospitals and fees of physicians is an insurance against debt, but to denominate it national health insurance is a misnomer...
...She is unable to understand that she cannot be accepted by the mainstream and still be a dissident...
...There ain't nobody more on the side of the little guy than the "gun lobby...
...When we lose the gun, we return to the big guy with the club versus the little guy with the club...
...For many years there was an unmistakable trend among the states toward the abolition of capital punishment, but now the trend seems to be in the other direction...
...its resemblance to embryos of other, lower life forms...
...William and Florence Prago Teaneck, New Jersey Carolyn Toll replies: Not those old red herrings again...
...I think racial persecution is ugly and depraved whether directed against Jews in Germany or Russia, against blacks in the United States or South Africa, or against ethnic Chinese by the Vietnamese government...
...As a pure scientist, one cannot reject the value of this work...
...My point is that we are shut out of the discussion entirely by tactics exactly like those used in this letter — raising questions of loyalty and motives rather than debating substantive issues...
...As a recent graduate of a small undergraduate college where I obtained a degree in biology, I learned of the voluntary moratorium on recombinant DNA research by the scientific community...
...The statement implies that we, the people, will have a reasonable chance at these "high stakes...
...But does this really mean that the genetically unique clump of cells residing in the womb is just another part of a woman's body...
...Don Luce's article leads me to believe that he does not share my indignation...
...The punitive instruments of the medical armament are alien to the biological realm and trespass physiological law...
...As in the field of nuclear energy and weaponry, corporate insensitivity and disregard for the sanctity of life and the environment may signal doom for those who have seen the results of profit-making and cost-effective management of the applied sciences...
...The Breira group, by flaunting their anti-Zionism, mistakenly believed they would save themselves as the power of the oil-rich Arabs grows and Israel once again becomes the scapegoat of an energy-starved world...
...It is a simple fact of life that women and not men become pregnant and must enter into sexual relationships with a greater burden of responsibility...
...We do not believe that in opposing abortion we are in any way belittling the difficulty and suffering a woman would endure in carrying and giving birth to an unwanted child...
...James Snyder Margaret Louden Snyder East Cleveland, Ohio Ted Howard's article illuminates one interesting problem of genetic research...
...For information, write to Jim Rowen...
...It reminds one of poor Mr...
...And they have...
...The result is that it was very difficult for the British press to expose the thalidomide scandal, it would be virtually impossible for it to expose a Watergate scandal, and it is almost unimaginable that it would even consider printing your article about the hydrogen bomb...
...Though it is the most intensively studied microorganism, after more than twenty-five years of study only one-third of the metabolic processes of E. coli are known and well understood...
...Will we...
...The analogy the Pragos draw between the Jewish leadership and the Pentagon is an apt one...
...Jan Barry East River A ntho logy 75 Gates A venue Montclair, NJ 07042 Boat people I was disturbed by Don Luce's article, "The Boat People," in the September issue...
...But I believe we must first ask if our country's policies have contributed to the tragedy of the "boat people...
...Scientific statements usually have to do with the physical characteristics of the embryo at various developmental stages...
...We believe publication of this article points to a basic contradiction in the arguments for abortion typically put forth by "liberals," a term we use for want of a better one...
...In the event of an unwanted pregnancy, such a society must place the right of the unborn first in demanding that it be allowed to live...
...The Progressive Foundation can provide an extensive selection of legal documents and other publications pertaining to The Progressive's First Amendment case...
...Watergate perhaps could not have happened in England...
...And I'm it, a life member of the National Rifle Association...
...But there are more than one million ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, and they are obviously being given an extremely bad time...
...The same prices apply, while supplies last, to the special May 1979 issue, "Born Secret," which contains extensive background materials on the case...
...It brings disquieting memories to mind...
...Government has for four years carried out a policy of economic and political destabilization of Vietnam...
...This disturbs me, and Mr...
...That is, after all, a religious question...
...Nicolas Walter London, England High stakes Mark Northcross closed his review of Barry Commoner's The Politics of Energy with these words: "The stakes are going to be high in the 1980 elections...
...S.H...
...But does this mean that because the "human" embryo resembles a different life form, that it is a different life form...
...The scientists, understandably, have a stake in the research...
...Has this progress somehow increased the human-ness of fetuses at such stages...
...Thomas Broderick Schenectady, New York Memo Well over half of this issue of The Progressive is devoted to Howard Morland's long-suppressed article, "The H-bomb Secret," and to related material dealing with the question of nuclear secrecy and other aspects of this magazine's historic First Amendment case...
...My article was not a defense of either Breira's position or the PLO's...
...The facts speak otherwise: According to the PLO's own manifesto, which they have never repudiated, the PLO is irrevocably committed to the destruction of Israel...
...These Jewish organizations were understandably trying to act in their own best interests by attempting to stop Breira, an organization inimical to everything they stood for...
...This policy has included refusal to keep our own treaty agreements on reconstruction aid, preventing the flow of much of the international aid through United Nations agencies, and condoning through our silence the Chinese invasion of Vietnam...
...It seems a rare opportunity for the pure scientist to discover that his or her laboratory "pets" are economically advantageous...
...A basic tenet of psychology is that you must first love yourself before you can truly love others...
...Let's not get fooled again...
...As Americans we can help alleviate some of the suffering our government causes...
...Will those who patent the products of their laboratories accept, as the recognized experts in a highly technical field, the responsibility for potential disaster...
...Furthermore, research into such areas as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization can only lead to the eventual successful development of a human being from fertilization to "birth" in an artificial womb...
...Many persons have no confidence in and do not rely upon medicine...

Vol. 43 • November 1979 • No. 11


 
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