In spite of W, science is on the march.

Every once in a while, I like to post articles that strike a chord with me for other reasons other than politics. As a horror movie afficianado, I'm very familiar with the well-meaning-but-misguided surgeon who tries to restore the features of a disfigured wife/daughter/lover. There are more than a few such movies out there (perhaps the most notable being Georges Franju's Les Yeux sans Visage).

But now we're looking at a time when such moralistic fables of tampering with nature-- and paying the price-- might start to look pretty hopelessly dated. And the motivation isn't a madman trying to murder others for the sake of his injured wife-- it's trying to help people who've suffered disfigurement through accident or disease avoid a life of depression, shame, and fear.

Now, about those stem-cell researchers who are actually baby-killing madmen trying to produce a master race in test tubes....