FOCUS 32581 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills, MI 48018 (313) 737-7122 0 Lab Wars Continued from Preceding Page talists. lb a remarkable extent, Rifkin seems oblivious to his supporters and op- ponents. Although he approaches science as a highly political way, his ramblings seem almost innocent of political over- tones, as if only the ideas mattered. N Dachau and DNA Our Programs include: • • • • Private certified kindergarten Preschool Pre-kindergarten Before and after school care • Professional caring staff DISCOVERY CORNER 4230 Livernois Troy, Mich. 528-9191 16200 W. 12 Mile 3633 W. Big Beaver Southfield, Mich. Troy, Mich. 557-7116 • 645-6448 rl Introducing a refreshing alternative in living for the older adult. Windemere.A gracious community offering both skilled and supportive care in a charming residential setting. 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For more information, contact Barbara Lipkowitz at Windemere Residence, 6950 Farmington Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322. Call 661-1700 now. NOR, D, FRR,N,ON RD l ORCHARD LANE RD NORTHWESTERN Hy, 48- FRIDAY, , ADC: -14, , 1987, - J. , Rifkin is easily carried away by the sub- jects that interest him, a category that seems to include the bulk of Western Civilization. His mind is to ideas what a steep hill is to a truck with faulty brakes. Even when his analog watch tells him it's time to move on, he seems physically unable to staunch the flow of words. In an age of tight intellectual focus, Rifkin is not afraid of sweeping visions. As modern science bores into the very nucleus of the cell, Rifkin is moving the other way, toward the kind of broad intellectual syn- thesis that seems a little blurry around the edges. He traces the origin of his interest in genetic engineering to a visit to the Dachau concentration camp in 1967 when he was 24 years old. "That was a very powerful moment for me," he said. "I couldn't understand how something like this could have happened. But I knew then that this would have a very powerful effect on my life." The Nazi nightmare, he says, stemmed from a culture steeped in many elements that comprise science's world-view. "Nazis saw the Final Solution as scientifically motivated," he said. "They were obsessed with efficiency and utilitarianism and a bizarre mutation of the idea of scientific detachment." Rifkin sees a connection between what he calls the "new eugenics" of DNA technology and the old eugenics of the Third Reich. Hitler's minions, influenced by the "scientific" eugenics movement popular in the 1920s and 1930s, attempted to mold civilization by mass murder. lb- day's more benign-seeming science of genetic engineering seeks to alter gene _ tic pools by manipulating the essence of liv- ing matter in the laboratory. Although the Nazis represent the ultimate perversion of the scientific method, Rifkin sees some of the same forces at work in today's front lines of science, especially the burgeoning area of bio-technology. Rifkin attacks the science of genetic engineering from two directions. Like many, he worries about the physical dangers that may result from wholesale testing of a technology that is only partial- ly understood. In his 1985 book, Declara- tion of a Heretic, he laid out frightening scenarios that included the release of dead- ly, uncontrollable organisms into the en- vironment, the loss of genetic diversity through tampering with natural selection, and the development of deadly biological agents for military use. "As a tool of mass destruction," he wrote, "[biological weaponry] rivals nuclear weaponry, and it can be developed at a frac- tion of the cost. These two factors alone make genetic technology an ideal weapon of the future." But an even larger factor in Rifkin's vi- sion are the moral implications of this scientific revolution. "It reduces life to an exploitable property," he said. "It gives us the ability to manipulate the essence of life, without a corresponding moral base on which to make decisions about how we want this life to be." The consequences of this world-view, he said, will be morally and environmentally devastating. Jews, especially, should be especially sen- sitive to the dangers of any kind of eu- genics movement, he said. "But they don't see this coming," he said. "The irony is that the people who will lead the protests against the new eugenics will be the young people of Germany, where the most mili- tant opposition to genetic engineering is taking place." American Jews, said Rifkin, respect science, but oppose the "know-nothingism" of the kinds of social and religious movements that go to court to block the teaching of evolution in schools. "Jews are caught in something of a bind," Rifkin said. "On one hand, they're very concerned about man's inhumanity to man, and about the evil that man is capable of doing, in the light of the Holocaust. "On the other hand, Jewish intellectuals closely identify with the modem, scientific world view. Jewish intellectuals have not critically evaluated how this same world view was, in many ways, responsible for the Holocaust." The "new eugenics," he said, differs from the social eugenics of the Hitler era. "No one's calling for the blond, blue-eyed Aryan race to rule the world. We're working for healthier babies, more efficient plants and animals. It's a commercial eugenics. For a better way of life, we're committing ourselves to programming genes, mapping genes, adding and subtracting genetic traits. There's no evil intent here. "But regardless of the intent of the peo- ple pursuing this technology, you have to look at its inherent logic. Remember, no technology is neutral. If you're engineer- ing a gene, every decision you make is a value decision: What are the good genes? What are the bad genes? What criteria do we use? Who makes these decisions? How is it consistent with the basic human values of our Judeo-Christian heritage?" The Arrogance of Science In one of his books, Rifkin documents the controversy in California over the spraying of strawberry fields with an engineered organism intended to reduce the probability of frost damage. Scientists