Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer, "Of Headless Mice...And Men"

Charles Krauthammer (1950- ) was born in New York City and earned a B.A. from McGill University in 1970 and an M.D. from Harvard University in 1975. He's been a psychiatrist in both private and public practice, a speechwriter for Vice-President Walter Mondale, an editor at The New Republic, a monthly essayist for Time magazine, and a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. Krauthammer's written a book of essays called Cutting Edges: Making Sense of the Eighties (1985), and has contributed to several others. His work also appears in periodicals such as The Weekly Standard, the ChicagoTribune, and The Wilson Quarterly. In 1987 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his social and political commentary. "Of Headless Mice...And Men" was first published in 1998 in Time.

CONTENT

1. Who is Dolly?
2. What happened to the four headless mice that were born?
3. What use does Krauthammer see for headless mice and other headless animals?
4. Discuss the technical hurdles in cloning a headless human.
5. What does the word draconian mean?
6. When does the author want human cloning stopped?
7. What is the major problem Krauthammer points out about a human clone?

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. The author makes several literary allusions in this piece. One is to Frankenstein and two others are to Brave New World. Look up the latter novel's plot if it isn't familiar. What do these allusions do to emphasize the author's objections to cloning?
2. What is the author's argument here? What kinds of support does he use to bolster his argument? Do you find his support persuasive?
3. Take a look at the use of quotation marks around the word alive in paragraphs four and five. How can you relate this usage to the author's views of cloning? Whose voices are represented? What do you make of the repetition?

1. How closely have you followed the debates about cloning? How might this level of information have affected your reading here?
2. What do you feel about human cloning? If you're against it, might your feelings change if you or a loved one needed a scarce organ? If you're for it, why?

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. The author suggests a temporal relationship between ethical questions and technological problems. That is, once the former are overcome, the latter will be solved in time. Using your reading and what you know about science, write an essay about these two things. What's the relationship between ethics and technical breakthroughs in science?
2. Krauthammer writes, "Human beings are ends, not means." Form that statement into a thesis and write an essay about the value of human life.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Krauthammer, at the time of this writing, states that U.S. politicians have not done enough to stop human cloning. Do some research to find out what has been done in the years between 1998 and the present. Have the changes this author calls for been implemented? Has he written anything further on the subject?

WEB CONNECTION

Would you like to do some more research on cloning farms and other related issues? This page from the National Right to Life Committee has links to dozens of documents about cloning, and is a great place to start your research.

LINKS

Biographical

This biography from the Washington Post has a photo of Krauthammer and a few links.

The Harry Walker Agency, this author's speaking agent, posted this biography and photo of Krauthammer. What does this one mention that the one above doesn't? What accounts for the difference, do you think?

Bibliographical

The Washington Post put up this page with links to a whole bunch of recent columns by this author. The topics covered range from cloning to baseball to Enron to the "Clinton Effect."

The Jerusalem Post conducted a radio interview with Krauthammer in late 2001. Click here tolisten to it.

Cultural

Looking for a way to get a general overview of some issues relating to technology? Try this directory from Google.com. Does the amount of entries online surprise you? Why or why not?

Ready for an essay on a closely related topic? Here's one by Leo Marx called "Does Technology Mean Progress?" How can you link Marx's ideas to the reading you just finished?

Predicting the nature of science's trajectory can be a dicey business. Take a look a these remarks about computers made over the last few decades—from highly reputable sources—and see how much sense they make right now. What, do you think, accounts for the nature of these predictions? Can such things be avoided?