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Cousin is obviously much more a victim of police and prosecutorial misconduct than O.J. Simpson ever was, yet where is his Johnnie Cochran, where is his Dream Team? Apparently something transcends race in determining guilt or innocence in the American system of justice. If the money talks, the client walks. SUSAN MANGUM Danville, Calif.
THE PURSUIT OF CLONING
In his commentary Charles Krauthammer claims to have discovered the hidden agenda of scientists who want to pursue cloning technology: the creation of headless human bodies [ESSAY, Jan. 19]. This, he alleges in mock excitement, would be "cloning's crowning achievement." I was the main scientist that Krauthammer cast in the role of Dr. Frankenstein. As he reported, I opined that it would be "possible" to produce human bodies without a forebrain and that it would be "legal" to keep such individuals alive. What Krauthammer failed to report was what I also said in a phone conversation with him: the purposeful creation of human bodies without heads would be viewed as repugnant by society, which would not allow it. I believe that while it may be possible to "rationalize" headless humans as a simple combination of separate organs, in our hearts we would still find it unacceptable. The phony specter of headless humans is being used to convince the public that cloning should be banned, even if its purpose is to make cells rather than people. If this view succeeds, future generations will be denied the very real benefits that cloning technology could provide. LEE M SILVER Professor Department of Molecular Biology Princeton University Princeton, N.J.
Human cloning will always be an absolute wrong. To compromise with such an evil is to surrender to it. Without delay, Congress should outlaw it totally and forever, setting exceptionally strong penalties for scientists who violate the ban. We must apply the brake of sanity to genetic engineering's locomotive. BEN MCKELWAY Plymouth, Mass.
In the years since the discovery of DNA, science has been laboring relentlessly to make Krauthammer's fears an inevitable possibility. To sound a frantic alarm at this late date smacks of Chicken Little. Let's get on with it. Let's figure out how to do cloning rationally and cautiously. In a hundred years, people, or at least our cloned descendants, will wonder what all the fuss was about. GEORGE HILLOW Newport News, VA
Thousands of people die every year because they cannot get a liver, kidney or heart from a donor. Thousands more could regain use of arms or legs from a cloned donor. All medical procedures are unnatural, but that fact alone does not make them immoral. MICHAEL SUNDERMANN Palo Alto, Calif.
Why all the excitement and controversy about the development of headless creatures? For the past decade the managed-health-care industry has been relying exclusively on them. RAY HORWITZ Atlanta
RESTORING STOLEN ART