Dear Tim,
It’s Obit Day today. Alan Shepherd–my favorite astronaut, perhaps because of Scott Glenn’s performance in the underrated movie version of The Right Stuff–is dead at 74. And Robert Young is dead at 91. One interesting lesson from this convergence of mortality is that longevity is really out of your control. Shepherd, whose physique earned him a place as one of the original Mercury astronauts, was 17 years younger when he died than Young, who battled alcoholism for more than 30 years, was once hospitalized for drug dependency, and even tried to commit suicide seven years ago. (It’s a totally obvious angle, but it is fascinating to read about the demons Young was fighting even as he embodied two all-American ideals–father Jim Anderson and Marcus Welby, M.D. The New YorkTimes obit describes how Young attended AA meetings all through his work on Father Knows Best, and the Washington Post describes his pathetic suicide attempt, in which he ran a hose from his exhaust pipe into his car–and then found out the battery was dead. He called a tow truck to re-start the car, but the operator noticed the hose and called the police.)
At the other end of the mortal coil, we have the news that scientists in Hawaii have successfully cloned mice, and even cloned some of the clones. Using a different technique from the one that produced Dolly the Sheep, this development brings scientists a giant step closer to cloning humans. One expert quoted in the Washington Post predicts the first human clone within five years.
To which I say: Eek! This is hardly an original thought, but it’s utterly creepy to imagine people cloning themselves–however sympathetic their motives (death, infertility, whatever). All honest parents already wrestle with the diabolical temptation to see their children as extensions of themselves; it’s really asking too much to expect human beings to honor the autonomy of offspring who really are extensions of themselves. But I’m wasting my breath, right? We all know this, but there’s no one who thinks the cloning of humans won’t happen.
One more intriguing thing about these stories: deeply buried in them is the seemingly significant information that so far, the scientists who developed the new technique have only been able to clone female mice. It seems that the cells taken from tiny mouse testicles just aren’t as durable as the cells derived from bitty mouse ovaries. The (male) scientists say, of course, that they’ll whip this problem any day now. But to me, their protestations have a nervous ring….
I am woman, hear me squeak.
Love, Marjorie.
