3ALCM COLLhG^ LIBRARY
WINSTON-SALEM. N. &
Volume LIV
Salem College, Winston-Salem, INI. C., Monday, October 30, 1972
Number 11
Life Conceived in Lab
Test Tube Babies?
Just imagine, people used to carve jack o’lantems out of turnips—
the Great Pumpkin would be offended!
I Celts Originated
Halloween Custom
The tradition of Halloween
arises from a medieval celebra
tion of the Celts honoring Octo
ber 31st as All Hallows, the eve
of All Saints Day. In the Celtic
calendar October 31st was the
eve of the new year. Conse
quently, the festival marked the
beginning of winter and paral
leled the May Day celebration
held at the start of summer,
which heralded the arrival of the
only season in the Celtic year.
On All Hallows, the Celts be
lieved the souls of deceased rela
tives revisited their homes to
witness the advent of the new
year. Every home rekindled its
hearth fire as a symbol of new
life and warmth for the ap
proach of both the coming year
and the cold months ahead.
Thus, fire rituals were intimately
associated with the celebration.
Since November brings in the
gloomiest and most barren half
of the year, this autumnal cele
bration assumed a sinister as
pect, primarily the idea of
ghosts, demons, and as pre
viously mentioned the return of
dead souls, as apparitions haunt
ing the air. The Celts felt it was
necessary to pacify the supernat
ural forces controlling the pro
cesses of nature and responsible
for the death of all verdant
plants. Evidences of sacrificial
rites have survived from this past
age.
now.” It was then thought if the
girl peered over her left shoul
der, she might see an apparition
of her future spouse. In divining
the possibility of good luck in
the coming year apples, the sa
cred symbols of early Celts,
were employed. Any person who
succeeded in pinning an apple
with a fork in a basin of water
or in extracting this apple from
the tub by his teeth was destined
to have a lucky year.
Halloween, having its origins
in such a pagan atmosphere has
now become a time for all chil
dren to enjoy themselves and let
their true nature as “little de-
inons” show through.
Irish immigrants introduced
secular Halloween antics to the
United States. In the 1800’s
boys overturned outhouses and
threw rotten apples at wood
sheds. The jack o’lantern, sym
bol of Halloween, was originally
a carved turnip rather than the
native pumpkin which appears
in every American window.
All information drawn from
the 1971 edition of Encyclope
dia Britannica, vol. II, p. 15.
An av/esome event is about to
be consummated: human con
ception in a test tube.
Indeed, Robert G. Edwards
of Cambridge University’s Phy
siology Department has already
done it. That is, he’s taken an
egg from a woman’s egg sac by
inserting a needle-like laparo
scope through her navel, united
the egg with a sperm cell in a
glass dish, then nurtured the re
sulting embryo through more
than 100 divisions.
Now, however, in a hospital
in Manchester, England, Ed
wards is going to carry the con
ception process to completion
by reimplanting the embryo,
again with the laparoscope,
through the navel into the wo
man’s uterus. Nine months later,
if all goes well, she will give
birth to the world’s first human
baby conceived in vitro.
The mother will be one of fif
ty volunteers, all of them doc
tors, doctors’ wives, or nurses.
These would-be-mothers are ster
ile because of blockages in their
oviducts, which make it impossi
ble for the ovum (egg cell) to
make contact with sperm.
In spite of these mothers’
wishes, even longings, for the ex
perience of giving birth, some
first-rate scientists have publicly
called for the stoppage of Ed
wards’ experiments. Harvard’s
James (“Double Helix”) Watson
calls in vitro conception “an
abominable act.” Max Perutz,
an English Nobel laureate bio
chemist, says that the “whole
nation should decide whether or
not these experiments should
continue.” These scientists are
worried that the child will be
born with deformities - remem
ber thahdomide? - and that this
will create a revulsion against all
science. They’re more worried
that the experiment, if success
ful, will bring the “Brave New
World” of genetic engineering
upon us before we’re ready to
cope with it.
The Anglo-Saxons continued
this Celtic celebration, adding
the practice of divination. Octo
ber 31st was believed to be the
most favorable night in the en
tire year for this art of foretel
ling the future. Children born on
All Hallows supposedly pos
sessed a special power for con
versing with aerial spirits. One
could employ this art to discern
whom he would marry during
the year, whether it would be a
lucky year, and whether the year
held death or good health. It was
the only day in which one was
allowed to evoke the devil as an
aid in divining these matters.
Marriageable young women
planted hemp seed in furrowed
land at midnight on All Hallows
repeating the following phrase:
Hemp seed I sow, who will my
husband be, let him come and
Come, En|oy
Funkin' Festival
by Winn Currie
Pumpkin Day hits Salem Col
lege in the biggest sort of way.
Through the efforts of IRS,
APRIL ARTS, the Y and 2,000
says “salute' to Halloween. In
terclub Council even throws in a
Horror House, complete with
Ann Moore.
In addition to students, facul
ty and their spouses and off-
consenting Moravian ghosts, Hal- spring, there will be several other
loween will definately be worthy little goblins, as the Y treats for
getting out of bed for on Tues- ty children from a nearby orph-
(jgy anage to a real Halloween. After
IRS kicks off the way at 4:00 joining in the festivities in the
P.M. with ftin and refreshments Square, the Y will take these lit-
in the Square. Shortly before the
Moravian Blessing, APRIL ARTS
intervenes with a pumpkin carve-
—byop. After a ghoulishly
gourmet delight in the bubbling
campus cauldron, things begin to
haunt again in the Square. With
Pumpkin Lighting, apple bob
bing, Pumpkin caroling and oth
er fun and games, APRIL ARTS
tie Pumpkin People to the recep
tion rooms of the dorms trick or
treating.
Legends have it that some
pretty strange things happen to
people who don’t take Pumpkin
Extravaganza seriously. Be safe-
Come to Salem Square Tuesday,
October 31. You don’t know
what you might see.
Aldous Huxley, in Brave New
World, predicted that we will use
genetic engineering to create ar
mies of identical humans who
would live in a genetically deter
mined hierarchy. In such a world
there is no such thing as indi
vidual freedom - although there
is efficiency, sufficiency, and
even happiness. The complexity
of problems that genetic engi
neering will bring can be
glimpsed in Perutz’s own state
ment: the whole nation should
decide the behavior of an indi
vidual, in order to prevent a
Brave New World, a world in
which the behavior of the indi
vidual is decided ahead of time.
The cmx of the issue is, who
is to decide a person’s behavior?
We would like people to be self-
determining, but at the same
time we’d like them to co-oper
ate with each other. The conflict
between these two wishes is the
basis of most of our problems.
Because this conflict would be
minimized if we were all biolog
ically identical, many thinkers
believe that the very existence
of methods to bring about bio
logical identity is likely to lead
quite quickly to their being used
to this end. We object to unifor
mity because we do not believe
in the genuineness of the self-
determination of identical enti
ties.
But there are other things we
could do with genetic engineer
ing. We could use it to create
greater self-determination in a
world where more meaningful
cooperation is possible. It may
be enlightening to list some of
the things that genetic engineer
ing is likely to be able to accom-
pHsh in the not-too-distant fu
ture:
Amniocentisis: prenatal sam-
phng of the amniotic fluid
around the fetus has already be
gun. By this method some gene
tic defects can be detected and
therapeutic abortion recom
mended. Many parents regard
this as a gain in self-determina
tion - for themselves, and in the
long mn for society.
Gene therapy, modifying
genes, adding genes, subtracting
genes, either before birth or af
ter. A gene has already been suc
cessfully added to human cells
in tissue culture, so it is clear
that this affects not just future
generations but the present one
as well. And this forces us to ask
questions such as. What genes do
we want? To what extent should
individuals be allowed to choose
what genes they add or subtract?
If the past is any guide, there
will be fads, fashions, fraterni
ties, and rivalries in “gene appar
el”. Of course this is quite futur
istic - but we may well live to
see it because early gene therapy
may halt aging and extend our
lifespans.
Cloning: making a replica of
an individual from one of its
cells. This may seem far out, but
it’s already been done with
frogs. It’s the obvious way to
make Huxley’s army of identical
entities. But it may be possible
to use a modified form of clon
ing to grow, in tissue culture,
just an organ necessary for trans
plant. It could be grown quickly
by the use of growth hormones,
or it may be possible to store
organs in some way. In any case
there would be no rejection pro
blem, because one’s clone organ
would be genetically identical to
one’s own organs.
Self determination is surely
enhanced if one has some choice
not only in one’s life style but
in one’s body — or even brain -
style. Cooperation that is neces
sary for adopting a particular
body (or brain) style is certainly
a deeper cooperation than what
is now possible.
As for the in vitro conception
issue. I think it is similar to the
abortion issue, in which the
burning question is, “Does a wo
man have the right to deter
mine what is done with her
body? ” When gene therapy be
comes available, the question
will be, “Does a person have the
right to determine what is done
with his or her body? ” We had
better, at least, talk about it
now.
Plays
by Mary Dorsett
Unfortunately, we will not be
able to send you back to your
childhood, but we will be able to
send you back to your dorms
chuckling. This fall the Pierrette
Players have chosen three comi
cal one-act plays; “Twelve
Pound Look” by Sir James M.
Barrie, “Fumed Oak” by Noel
Coward, and “The Marriage Pro
posal” by Anton Chekov. Each
of these plays depicts a man
caught in a situation that is de
termined by the women around
him. How each one of the men
finally comes out is different in
each play. Brant Godfrey is con
fused by Lynda Cassanova and
Holly Crum with Peggy Whit
tington helping in “Twelve
Pound Look.” Sally Burnett,
Laura Boone and Zel Gilbert
dominate Brian Meehan in
“Fumed Oak.” To finish off the
evening Meg Hutchins and Ann
Aultman infuriate Vinney Whitt.
We will all be waiting for you in
the Drama Workshop on Novem
ber 1, 2, and 4 at 8:00 and at
7:30 on Friday, November 3.
See you soon!
INFO
IRS DANCE
Friday, November 3
American Legion Post on
Miller St. (near Cloverdale Ford)
Music by: “Mainstream”
1';
; 1
'.:i
BYOB til 12:30