What next? No math teaching?

To the editor: The paper brought the disturbing news on Nov. 21 that Washington University has received a grant of $156 million to continue work on the sequencing of the human genome. Obviously, this work has a far greater potential to lead to human cloning than stem-cell research has. This is a very slippery slope.

It seems simple to say that we can stop cloning by stopping the teaching of science in our high schools and colleges. But that is not right. The fact is that science is always going to spring up as long as we teach mathematics. It is fair to say that mathematics breeds science. The top of the slippery slope is mathematics. If we stop teaching math we will be safe from cloning.

I hope we can count on state Rep. Nathan Cooper and state Sen. Jason Crowell to introduce legislation to stop math teaching in Missouri.

JOHN L. COOK, Cape Girardeau