Only a few years ago, the topic of cloning seemed to be a dream of science fiction fans. But in the past few years cloning has gone from the rough pages of fiction to the journals of fact. Two Korean scientists announced Thursday they had successfully cloned a human embryo. The embryos matured into blastocysts, from which stem cells could be extracted. In layman's terms, the potential for cloning is now reality, and the technology could be used for medical purposes. Despite cries for definitive legislation, it would be premature for the government to step in during the infancy of such remarkable technological strides.
Advances in the world of science inevitably collide with governmental and public hesitance. For some, cloning represents a glimpse into the future of medicine, with human cell samples being used to cure debilitating diseases like Alzheimer's and diabetes. To others, it is a foreboding science signaling a first step in a progression toward widespread cloning and a dystopian future. Many, including the Bush administration, are pushing for an across-the-board ban on all cloning experiments. Limited bans are currently in place, and the American scientific community attributes a lack of progress in this field to current rules. A comprehensive ban has previously passed in the House of Representatives but has stalled in the Senate.
The moral questions of cloning surely will be debated for several decades as this new technology takes shape. The one certainty is that cloning is a very real issue that will not disappear with legislation. The possibilities of cloning are unknown; full-human cloning could be months, years or even decades away. At this point, to ban all forms of human cloning would be a mistake when the potential for medical breakthrough is so great. Only when the research is more definitive and processes more clearly defined should the government debate the ethical and practical concerns of cloning.
University must rethink spending
Imagine the surprise of many of Ohio University's most important contributors upon seeing faculty members picketing at the corners of Union and Court streets. How shocking it must have been for the mothers and fathers of bright-eyed OU students to read about the financial missteps of the university to which they pay exorbitant amounts of money. These enterprising professors picked a perfect place and time to make their feelings known, and the points they raise question the logic of some administrative decisions during the past few years and if the piles of money coming in yearly are wisely spent.
The picketers handed out literature that touched on several questionable moves by the OU administration. The university made statewide headlines for all the wrong reasons in November by purchasing a $4.8 million airplane to be used for university business. Trading in two older planes lowered the overall cost down to $3.7 million. While the administration claims the plane was necessary for use by administrators, students and faculty and was paid for by a large grant, the purchase was in reality a luxury and a public relations gaffe. It is very difficult to take the administration seriously when it cries wolf about a lack of funds yet can somehow muster up more than $3.5 million for an airplane. Combined with rising tuition every year, the purchase of the plane is downright insulting to students and parents who struggle to pay for the privilege of attending OU. Raising tuition is no longer an issue of if
but when. Administrators essentially plan the maximum amount of tuition increases (6 percent) every year. This, combined with other increases, has resulted in a nearly 10 percent increase in total fees for the upcoming year.
These incremental and steady increases in tuition each year have not translated into a better product. The university has banned most of its departments from hiring adjunct professors, whose year-to-year commitments alleviate the load on the now stretched-thin regular faculty. Upper level classes, as many juniors and seniors can attest to, are extremely difficult to get into. Faculty salary increases are also sliding, making OU a less attractive spot for the sought-after faculty that helps a university's image and a frustrating place for the professors already here. Administrators can talk for hours on end about what a woeful situation they are in, but a mixture of bloated costs without a rise in tangible benefits for students and faculty is a red flag that all is not well at Cutler Hall. 17
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