CGS-authored

What would Rachel Carson say about human embryo cloning? It's an incongruous question, perhaps. After all, the current debate over cloning and embryo research was inconceivable in 1962 when Carson wrote "Silent Spring," launching the modern environmental movement.

Yet environmental groups -- along with a growing number of other liberal-leaning interest groups -- are increasingly voicing concerns about the bioethical issue of embryo cloning. In doing so, they are finding themselves shoulder to shoulder with the religious and political conservatives who have traditionally led the campaign against human embryo research.

Indeed, the more the human cloning issue evolves on Capitol Hill, the more the standard political banners so proudly waved in these parts have begun to tatter. Women's health groups, usually unified to the left of center, have split over the issue. Libertarians and others usually affiliated with the right -- including a former Reagan adviser, George A. Keyworth II -- have decried current efforts to ban cloning research. Those of us who work inside the Beltway are accustomed to political pragmatism. But as someone who has covered science here...