By some happy coincidence, at around the same time that Leon Kass recommended that the President's Bioethics Council read Nathaniel Hawthorne's story The Birthmark, in preparation for their deliberations, I also happened to be rereading Russell Kirk's great book, The Conservative Mind, in which he too extols the virtues of Hawthorne. Earth's Holocaust is one of the stories that Kirk particularly singles out for its exploration of conservative themes.  It's part of Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse collection, but it's also available on-line and well worth a read.

The story concerns a massive bonfire in which the people of the world, convinced that their modern society has reached a state of near perfection, determine to burn up all the outdated old knowledge from Man's dark past :

    Once upon a time - but whether in the time past or time to come, is a matter of little or no moment- this wide world had become
    so overburthened with an accumulation of worn-out trumpery, that the inhabitants determined to rid themselves of it by a general
    bonfire. The site fixed upon, at the representation of the insurance companies, and as being as central a spot as any other on the
    globe, was one of the broadest prairies of the West, where no human habitation would be endangered by the flames, and where
    a vast assemblage of spectators might commodiously admire the show. Having a taste for sights of this kind, and imagining,
    likewise, that the illumination of the bonfire might reveal some profundity or moral truth, heretofore hidden in mist or darkness,
    I made it convenient to journey thither and be present.

As our narrator watches, into the flames go all of literature and art, the titles and insignias of rank, the decorations and medals bestowed upon soldiers, the weapons, the fashionable clothing, the liquor and tobacco, the clerical vestments and the church buildings entire, all the accretions of Western civilization, until even the Bible is added :

    [A]s the final sacrifice of human error, what else remained to be thrown upon the embers of that awful pile, except the Book,
    which, though a celestial revelation to past ages, was but a voice from a lower sphere, as regarded the present race of man?
    It was done! Upon the blazing heap of falsehood and worn-out truth- things that the earth had never needed, or had ceased to need,
    or had grown childishly weary of- fell the ponderous church Bible, the great old volume, that had lain so long on the cushion
    of the pulpit, and whence the pastor's solemn voice had given holy utterance on so many a Sabbath day.

And so, purified in the flame, and rid of all of the hoary old thoughts that had been holding mankind back for so long, the reformers prepare to face their perfect future.  The former executioners, who have cast into the fire the implements used by the various nations for administering capital punishment, commiserate about how they will no longer have any work, now that Man is perfect, but a stranger interrupts their reverie :

    'The best counsel for all of us is,' remarked the hangman, 'that- as soon as we have finished the last drop of liquor- I help you,
    my three friends, to a comfortable end upon the nearest tree, and then hang myself on the same bough. This is no world for us
    any longer.'

    'Poh, poh, my good fellows!' said a dark-complexioned personage, who now joined the group- his complexion was indeed
    fearfully dark, and his eyes glowed with a redder light than that of the bonfire- 'Be not so cast down, my dear friends;
    you shall see good days yet. There is one thing that these wiseacres have forgotten to throw into the fire, and without which
    all the rest of the conflagration is just nothing at all; yes- though they had burnt the earth itself to a cinder.'

    'And what may that be?' eagerly demanded the last murderer.

    'What but the human heart itself!' said the dark-visaged stranger, with a portentous grin. 'And unless they hit upon some method
    of purifying that foul cavern, forth from it will reissue all the shapes of wrong and misery-the same old shapes, or worse ones-
    which they have taken such a vast deal of trouble to consume to ashes. I have stood by, this live-long night, and laughed in my
    sleeve at the whole business. Oh, take my word for it, it will be the old world yet!'

    This brief conversation supplied me with a theme for lengthened thought. How sad a truth- if true it were- that Man's age-long
    endeavor for perfection had served only to render him the mockery of the Evil Principle, from the fatal circumstance of an error
    at the very root of the matter! The heart-the heart- there was the little yet boundless sphere, wherein existed the original wrong,
    of which the crime and misery of this outward world were merely types. Purify that inward sphere; and the many shapes of evil
    that haunt the outward, and which now seem almost our only realities, will turn to shadowy phantoms, and vanish of their own
    accord. But if we go no deeper than the Intellect, and strive, with merely that feeble instrument, to discern and rectify what is
    wrong, our whole accomplishment will be a dream; so unsubstantial, that it matters little whether the bonfire, which I have so
    faithfully described, were what we choose to call a real event, and a flame that would scorch the finger- or only a phosphoric
    radiance, and a parable of my own brain!

For good reason does he call this tale a '"parable", for in just a few pages Hawthorne presents several of the central themes that unify his work, ideas which form the very core of the conservative critique : that Man's sinfulness is an immutable part of his character; that rationalists, reformers, and progressives delude themselves with their utopian notions of the perfectibility of Man; that in their delusion they do incalculable damage to the culture, while leaving human nature untouched; and that, no matter the "progress" they make, evil lurks, waiting to rear its ugly head and shatter their dreams.

(Reviewed:07-Mar-02)

Grade: (A+) Orrin C. Judd

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Nathaniel Hawthorne Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -
    -ESSAY: The Moral Conservatism of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Russell Kirk, december 1952, Contemporary Review)
    -ESSAY: Was Nathaniel Hawthorne a Conservative? (Lee Trepanier, May 18th, 2023, Imaginative Conservative)
    -ESSAY: Hawthorne's Necrotic Tissue (S. Dorman, 6/20/24, Mere Orthodoxy)     -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) (kirjasto)
    -Encyclopædia Britannica : Hawthorne, Nathaniel Y«
    -Hawthorne in Salem
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne Society
    -The House of the 7 Gables (Salem, MA)
    -ESSAY : Y«Chiefly About War Matters (Nathaniel Hawthorne, JULY Y«1862, Atlantic Monthly)
    -ETEXT : The Birthmark
    -ETEXT : The Birthmark
    -
    -POEM: Poem of the Day: ‘Oh could I raise the darken’d veil’: Without Nathaniel Hawthorne, how can we understand the return of a bastard puritanism in the Woke movement, or grasp the psychological self-esteem that comes from an ostensible moral self-hatred? (EDITED BY JOSEPH BOTTUM, February 13, 2023, NY Sun)
    -ETEXTS : Hawthorne, Nathaniel. (Bartleby.com)
    -ETEXTS : Nathaniel Hawthorne (Self Knowledge)
    -The Classic Text : Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (Transcendentalists.com)
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) (American Literature on the Web)
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne : A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection Home Page
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) (D. Campbell, Gonzaga)
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (IPL Online Literary Criticism Collection)
    -The SAC LitWeb Nathaniel Hawthorne Page
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)(Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide, An Ongoing Online Project © Paul P. Reuben)
    -About Nathaniel Hawthorne (Under The Sun)
    -American Writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne (C-SPAN)
    -LitGothic | Nathaniel Hawthorne page
    -ESSAY: Religious Discovery in Hawthorne’s “The Marble Faun” (Michael De Sapio, March 24th, 2022, Imaginative Conservative)
    -ESSAY: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S SALEM: A TOWN WITH A DARK HISTORY OF BRUTALITY AND MURDER (EDWARD J. RENEHAN JR., 12/16/21, Crime Reads)
    -ESSAY: Innocence Lost: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Paul Krause, March 2nd, 2021, Imaginative Conservative)
    -PODCAST: How Nathaniel Hawthorne Distinguished Between ‘Novels’ and ‘Romances’ (History of Literature, January 11, 2021)
    -ESSAY : Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne (Melville.org)
    -ESSAY: Half a Puritan: Hawthorne understood total depravity but missed the gospel (Gene Edward Veith, World)
    -Major Molineaux Site : This is a site exploring the short story My Kinsman Major Molineaux, first published in 1832 by Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -Young Goodman Brown : This is a site exploring the short story Young Goodman Brown, first published in 1835 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
    -ClassicNotes: About Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864): Teacher's Resource File
    -ESSAY : Anti-Science-Fiction : Why did Bush's bioethics czar order his colleagues to read Nathaniel Hawthorne? (Nick Gillespie, January 18, 2002, Slate)
    -ESSAY : Birthmarks and Bioethics : Why is the head of the President's Council on Bioethics forcing its members to read Nathaniel Hawthorne? (Nick Gillespie, January 18, 2002, Reason)
    -ESSAY : The Crimson Birthmark (William Safire, 1/21/02, NY Times)
    -ESSAY : Cure or quest for perfection? (Ellen Goodman, 1/24/2002, Boston Globe)
    -ANNOTATED REVIEW : of The Birthmark (Janice L. Willms, Medical Humanities)
    -REVIEW : of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Julian Hawthorne, 1886, Atlantic Monthly)
    -REVIEW: of The Marble Faun, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (James Russell Lowell, April 1860, Atlantic Monthly)
    -ESSAY: When Franklin Pierce Saved Nathaniel Hawthorne from Financial Ruin: Gary Ginsberg on the Longtime Friendship Between the Novelist and the Future President (Gary Ginsberg, July 8, 2021, LitHub)

Book-related and General Links:
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) (kirjasto)
    -Encyclopædia Britannica : Hawthorne, Nathaniel Ý
    -Hawthorne in Salem
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne Society
    -The House of the 7 Gables (Salem, MA)
    -ESSAY : ÝChiefly About War Matters (Nathaniel Hawthorne, JULY Ý1862, Atlantic Monthly)
    -ETEXT : Earth's Holocaust by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1844)
    -ETEXT : The Birthmark
    -ETEXT : The Birthmark
    -ETEXT : EARTH'S HOLOCAUST (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1844)
    -ETEXTS : Hawthorne, Nathaniel. (Bartleby.com)
    -ETEXTS : Nathaniel Hawthorne (Self Knowledge)
    -The Classic Text : Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (Transcendentalists.com)
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) (American Literature on the Web)
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne : A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection Home Page
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) (D. Campbell, Gonzaga)
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (IPL Online Literary Criticism Collection)
    -The SAC LitWeb Nathaniel Hawthorne Page
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)(Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide, An Ongoing Online Project © Paul P. Reuben)
    -About Nathaniel Hawthorne (Under The Sun)
    -American Writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne (C-SPAN)
    -LitGothic | Nathaniel Hawthorne page
    -ESSAY : Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne (Melville.org)
    -Major Molineaux Site : This is a site exploring the short story My Kinsman Major Molineaux, first published in 1832 by Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -Young Goodman Brown : This is a site exploring the short story Young Goodman Brown, first published in 1835 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
    -ClassicNotes: About Nathaniel Hawthorne
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864): Teacher's Resource File
    -ESSAY : Anti-Science-Fiction : Why did Bush's bioethics czar order his colleagues to read Nathaniel Hawthorne? (Nick Gillespie, January 18, 2002, Slate)
    -ESSAY : Birthmarks and Bioethics : Why is the head of the President's Council on Bioethics forcing its members to read Nathaniel Hawthorne? (Nick Gillespie, January 18, 2002, Reason)
    -ESSAY : The Crimson Birthmark (William Safire, 1/21/02, NY Times)
    -ESSAY : Cure or quest for perfection? (Ellen Goodman, 1/24/2002, Boston Globe)
    -ESSAY : Ignorance and Bliss : Today's scientific breakthroughs raise an old question: Is the pursuit of knowledge always a good thing? A long tradition in Western thought holds that it is not. (Mark Lilla, Wilson Quarterly)
    -REVIEW : of FRANKENSTEIN'S FOOTSTEPS: Science, Genetics and Popular Culture, by Jon Turney.  (Edward Tenner, Wilson Quarterly)
    -ANNOTATED REVIEW : of The Birthmark (Janice L. Willms, Medical Humanities)
    -REVIEW : of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Julian Hawthorne, 1886, Atlantic Monthly)
    -REVIEW : of Ý The Marble Faun, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (James Russell Lowell, A P R I L Ý 1 8 6 0, Atlantic Monthly)

BIOTECH/BIOETHICS :
    -SPEECH : Remarks by the President on Stem Cell Research (The Bush Ranch Crawford, Texas, 8/09/01)
    -SPEECH : The Bush Decision on Stem-Cell Research (George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, August 9, 2001)
    -EXECUTIVE ORDER :   Creation of the President's Council on Bioethics (White House, November 28, 2001)
    -President's Council on Bioethics
    -President Names Members of Bioethics Council (January 16, 2002)
    -ESSAY : Bush Unveils Bioethics Council Human Cloning, Tests on Cloned Embryos Will Top Agenda of Panel's 1st Meeting (Rick Weiss, Washington Post, January 17, 2002)
    -ESSAY : Opinion Journalism at the Post : The Washington Post confuses an editorial with a news story, and takes a shot at the
president's new Bioethics Council. (J. Bottum, 01/18/2002, Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : Kass Commission Names Emerge (Nick Schulz, 1/15/02, techCentralStation)
    -ESSAY : ÝTallying the New Bioethics Council : Has Leon Kass stacked  the deck? (Ronald Bailey, January 23, 2002, Reason)
    -SYMPOSIUM : Did Bush Do the Right Thing? (Kathryn Jean Lopez, August 10, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY : The Incoherent Embryophile (Michael Kinsley, 11/30/01, Washington Post)
    -ESSAY : Rebels Against the Future : Witnessing the birth of the global anti-technology movement (Ronald Bailey, February 28, 2001, Reason)
    -ESSAY : The Future Is Now, II (William Kristol, 04/15/2002, Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : The Remastered Race : Artificial chromosomes and in vitro screening are giving new life to the eugenics debate. The question is not whether we want to engineer embryos but how far it should go. (Brian Alexander, April 2002, Wired)
    -ESSAY : Advice Fit for a President : New bioethics council faces tough challenges, harsh criticism (Eugene Russo, The Scientist, Feb. 18, 2002)
    -ESSAY : Wanna Buy a Bioethicist? : Some corporations have discovered that bioethics makes good public relations. (Christianity Today, October 1, 2001)
    -Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
    -The World Transhumanist Association
    -Extropianism
    -Center for the Study of Technology and Society
    -THE ISSUES : Stem Cell Research (Washington Post)
    -Coverage of the Cloning Debate (NY Times)
    -Bioresearch Symposium (Reason, November 2001)
    -Commentary on Stem Cell Research
    -CharlesMurtaugh.com (a bioblog from a Harvard post Doc)
    -ARTICLE : The First Human Cloned Embryo (11/25/01, Scientific American)
LEON KASS :
    -Leon Richard Kass : Curriculum Vitae (Born: Chicago, Illinois, February 12, 1939)
    -Committee on Social Thought (University of Chicago)
    -STATEMENT : The Inhuman Use of Human Beings : A Statement on Embryo Research by the Ramsey Colloquium (First Things, January 1995)
    -ESSAY : The Wisdom of Repugnance (Leon R. Kass)
    -ESSAY : The wisdom of repugnance. (Leon R. Kass)
    -ESSAY : LíChaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality? (Leon R. Kass, First Things, May 2001)
    -ESSAY : Ban Stand : CLONING'S BIG TEST (Leon R. Kass and Daniel Callahan, 08.06.01, New Republic)
    -ESSAY : Preventing a Brave New World : WHY WE SHOULD BAN HUMAN CLONING NOW (Leon R. Kass, 05.17.01, New Republic)
    -ESSAY : The End of Courtship (Leon R. Kass, The Public Interest)
    -ESSAY : Dehumanization Triumphant (Leon R. Kass, First Things, August/September 1996)
    -ESSAY : Farmers, Founders, and Fratricide: The Story of Cain and Abel (Leon R. Kass, First Things, April 1996)
    -ESSAY : What's Your Name? (Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass, First Things, November 1995)
    -ESSAY : Proposing Courtship (Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass, First Things, October 1999)
    -ESSAY : Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Wife (Leon R. Kass, First Things, November 1994)
    -SYMPOSIUM : The Sanctity of Life Seduced: A Symposium on Medical Ethics (First Things, April 1994)
    -REVIEW : of Aldous Huxley Brave New World (1932) (Leon R. Kass, First Things)
    -REVIEW : of BRAVE NEW WORLDS Staying Human in the Genetic Future. By Bryan Appleyard (Leon R. Kass , NY Times Book Review)
    -ESSAY : The Ethics of Human Cloning By Leon R. Kass and James Q. Wilson (AEI)
    -BOOK SUMMARY : The Ethics of Human Cloning By Leon R. Kass and James Q. Wilson (AEI)
    -REVIEW : of The Ethics of Cloning (DAVID PAPINEAU, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying. Edited by Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass (Alan Jacobs, First Things)
    -REVIEW : of The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature. By Leon R. Kass (Molly Finn, First Things)
    -DISCUSSION : Human Cloning Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology say they have cloned human embryos for the purpose of stem cell research. After a Susan Dentzer background report, Gwen Ifill examines the human cloning debate with Ronald Green, head of an
ethics advisory board for ACT; and Leon Kass, bioethicist at the University of Chicago and chair of the President's Council on Bioethics. (Online Newshour, November 26, 2001, PBS)
    -ESSAY : A Moral Appetite : In a new book on eating, Leon Kass says that we are not only what we eat, but also how, why, and with whom. (University of Chicago Magazine)
    -PROFILE : SCIENTIST AT WORK / LEON R. KASS : Moralist of Science Ponders Its Power (NICHOLAS WADE, 3/19/02, NY Times)
    -PROFILE : Leon Kass: A national treasure (George Weigel, Ethics and Public Policy Center)
    -PROFILE : of Leon Kass : Irrationalist in Chief (Chris Mooney, Sep/Oct 2001, American Prospect)
    -PROFILE : Leon Kass: The ethics cop (Michele Orecklin, 8/20/01, CNN/TIME)
    -PROFILE : Who Is Leon Kass? Ý(Stuart Shepard, Family News in Focus)
    -ESSAY : The Crimson Birthmark (William Safire, 1/21/02, NY Times)
    -ESSAY : Cure or quest for perfection? (Ellen Goodman, 1/24/2002, Boston Globe)
    -ESSAY : Anti-Science-Fiction : Why did Bush's bioethics czar order his colleagues to read Nathaniel Hawthorne? (Nick Gillespie, January
18, 2002, Slate)
    -ESSAY : Birthmarks and Bioethics : Why is the head of the President's Council on Bioethics forcing its members to read Nathaniel Hawthorne? (Nick Gillespie, January 18, 2002, Reason)
    -ESSAY : A novel approach to work : A variety of professionals are turning to literature to gain insights on the issues they face each day. (Sara Steindorf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, 1/29/02, CS Monitor)
    -ESSAY : Kass Warfare : The president's bioethics council enters the cloning fray. (Andrew Ferguson, 02/04/2002, , Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : The newest issue of the Public Interest offers deep insights into some of the minds on the Kass commission. (David Skinner, 01/24/2002 , Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : Loving Leon : The Weekly Standard's favorite intellectual (Nicholas Confessore, 1.29.02, The American Prospect)
    -ESSAY : Two Kinds of Spin, Partisan and Literary  (Chris Mooney, 1.22.02, American Prospect)
    -ESSAY : Back to nature : The bioethics czar's new right-hand man is passionately opposed to abortion, public schools, federal taxes and
Democrats (Arthur Allen, Nov. 30, 2001, Salon)
    -ESSAY : The Kass Council: Some Advice (Glenn Reynolds, 01/23/2002, Tech Central Station)
DISCUSSION :
    -ARTICLE : EU moving towards an ageing population (Sharon Spiteri, EU Observer, 17.01.2002)
    -ESSAY : Does Human Nature Have a Future? : The end of history, Bobos, and biotechnology.  (Peter Augustine Lawler, 02/04/2002, Weekly Standard)
    -ESSAY : The Cloning Conundrum (JACK M. BALKIN, January 30, 2002, NY Times)
    -ESSAY : Some for Abortion Rights Lean Right in Cloning Fight (SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, January 24, 2002, NY Times)
    -ESSAY : Twin Room : Cloning does not mean creating disposable people  and harvesting their organs. (Jacob Sullum, January 18, 2002, Reason)
    -ESSAY : Ban all cloning techniques Ý(Kenneth L. Connor, 01/22/2002,  USA Today)
    -ESSAY : Ignorance and Bliss : Today's scientific breakthroughs raise an old question: Is the pursuit of knowledge always a good thing? A long tradition in Western thought holds that it is not. (Mark Lilla, Wilson Quarterly)
    -REVIEW : of FRANKENSTEIN'S FOOTSTEPS: Science, Genetics and Popular Culture, by Jon Turney.  (Edward Tenner, Wilson Quarterly)
    -DEBATE : Ý Are stem cells babies?  (REASON Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey debates Patrick Lee &  Robert P. George on National Review Online, August 20, 2001)
    -ARTICLE : Academy Supports Cloning to Treat Disease (SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, 1/19/02, NY Times)
    -ESSAY : Yes, Don't Impede Medical Progress (Virginia Postrel, The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2001)
    -ESSAY : Should We Stop Science From Cloning Around? (Andrew Ferguson, 11/27/01, Bloomberg)
    -ESSAY : Only Human (Andrew Sullivan, July 2001, New Republic)
    -ESSAY : Reason, Science, & Stem Cells : Why killing embryonic human beings is wrong (Patrick Lee & Robert P. George, July 20, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY : A Desire to Duplicate : A grieving family hopes to replace a lost child. A genetics-obsessed sect dreams of achieving immortality.
Is this how human cloning will begin? (MARGARET TALBOT, NY Times Magazine)
    -ESSAY : The New York Times Magazine: Cloned! (Chris Mooney, 2.6.01, American Prospect)
    -ESSAY : The Benefits of Stem Cell Research - And The Costs (Steve Chapman, July 15, 2001, Townhall)
    -ESSAY : A Clone in Sheep's Clothing : A sheep cloned from adult cells opens vast scientific possibilities and ethical dilemmas (Tim Beardsley, 03/03/97, Scientific American)
    -ESSAY : Fetal Positions : In the debate over cloning, it's still pro-choice vs. pro-life. It shouldn't be. (William Saletan, Mother Jones)
    -ESSAY : Clones, Courts, and Contradictions (Linda Chavez, 1/14/98, Jewish World Review)
    -ESSAY : Timid Old World Ý: Angry villagers in academia and on Capitol Hill are crusading for a ban on human cloning (Robert
Tracinski, July 27, 2001, CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM)
    -ESSAY : Cloning Reality : Brave New World here we come (Wesley J. Smith, 1/31/01, National Review)
    -ESSAY : The Mad Scientist Bogeyman (Richard Cohen, August 7, 2001, Washington Post)
    -RESPONSE : The Bogeyman Cometh : Girding for battle (Kevin Cherry, August 8, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY : Cloningís D-Day : The House takes up a life-and-death vote. (Kathryn Jean Lopez, July 31, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY : Cloning and the New Jacobins (JAMES C. BENNETT , August 18, 2001, MedServ)
    -ESSAY : Stem cell research: "On the one hand, on the other hand" (Lindsay Sobel, 8.15.01, American Prospect)
    -ESSAY : Clones of Contention (Jacob Sullum, August 7, 2001, Reason)
    -ESSAY : Killing Cloning : At the top of the orders of business as the Senate reconvenes from Thanksgiving recess should be a ban on all
human cloning. (Kathryn Jean Lopez, November 26, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY : Heredity and Humanity : HAVE NO FEAR. GENES AREN'T EVERYTHING (Francis S. Collins, Lowell Weiss, and Kathy Hudson, 06.20.01, New Republic)
    -ESSAY : Should Cloning Be Legal? : It's not a federal question. (Dave Kopel & Glenn Reynolds, April 16, 2001, National Review)
    -ESSAY : The Basics About Stem Cells (Maureen L. Condic, First Things, January 2002)
    -ESSAY : Between Beasts and God (Gilbert Meilaender, First Things, January 2002)
    -LECTURE : Begetting and Cloning (Gilbert Meilaender, presented to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission on March 13, 1997.)
    -ESSAY : Affirming Ourselves to Death (Gilbert Meilaender, First Things, June/July 1998)
    -ESSAY : Second Thoughts About Body Parts (Gilbert Meilaender, First Things, April 1996)
    -ESSAY : Patenting Life, No (Richard D. Land & C. Ben Mitchell, First Things, May 1996)
    -ESSAY : A Low-Level Form of Civil War (Ronald Bailey, September 8, 2000, Reason)
    -ESSAY : Genes Out of the Bottle (The Editors, 11.28.00, New Republic)
    -ESSAY : Petri Dish Politics : Biotechnology will make it possible for us to live longer and better. So why are some people dead set
against it? (Ronald Bailey, December 1999, Reason)
    -ESSAY : Intimations of Immortality (Ronald Bailey, March 6, 1999, Reason)
    -ESSAY : The Bioethics Mess :  the revolution that replaced Hippocrates with Peter Singer as arbiter of medical morality.  (Dianne Irving, May 2001, The Crisis)
    -Making Babies (Frontline, PBS)
    -REVIEW : of Human Cloning: Religious Responses. Edited by Ronald Cole-Turner (Gilbert Meilaender, First Things)
    -REVIEW : of Whoís Afraid of Human Cloning? By Gregory Pence (Jorge Garcia, First Things)
    -REVIEW : of Who Are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities. By Jean Bethke Elshtain (John T. Noonan Jr., NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of Cloning: Responsible Science or Technomadness? Edited by Michael Ruse and Aryne Sheppard (Michael Scott Moore, Salon)
    -REVIEW : of DARK REMEDY : The impact of thalidomide and its revival as a vital medicine By Trent Stephens and Rock Brynner (John Carmody, Sydney Morning Herald)

THE NEO-LUDDITES :
    -ESSAY : First Test of the Biotech Age: Human Cloning (WILLIAM KRISTOL and JEREMY RIFKIN , 3/06/02, LA Times)
    -ESSAY :   The End of Pregnancy : Within a Generation There Will Probably Be Mass Use of Artificial Wombs to Grow Babies (Jeremy Rifkin, January 17, 2002 in the Guardian of London)

ROBERT P. GEORGE :
    -ESSAY : The Failure of Catholic Political Leadership (Robert P. George & William L. Saunders, April 2000, The Crisis)
    -ESSAY : The Renaissance of Faith & Reason : In Fides et Ratio, the pope is calling for the renewal of the intellectual life of the Church for the sake of her saving mission (Robert George, The Crisis)

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER :
    -ARCHIVES : Charles Krauthammer (Townhall.com)
    -ARCHIVES : Charles Krauthammer (Jewish World Review)
    -ESSAY : Cloning and stem-cell research (Charles Krauthammer, July 30, 2001)
    -ESSAY : Use the surgeon general post to help nation debate biotechnology issues (Charles Krauthammer, Jewish World Review April 30, 2001)
    -ESSAY : Of Headless Mice...And Men : The ultimate cloning horror: human organ farms (Charles Krauthammer, JANUARY 19, 1998, TIME)

GENERAL :
    -Transcendentalists.com
    -PROFILE : Man Who Would Be God: Giving Robots Life (SARAH LYALL, February 2, 2002, NY Times)