Cloning, stem cell research and the ethics behind the issues is brought to the Kellogg Center this semester by representatives from the White House and research labs around the country.

The 14th season of the LeFrak Forum and Symposium on Science, Reason and Modern Technology began last week with a lecture by Leon Kass, chairman of President George W. Bush's Council on Bioethics.

"As nearly everyone appreciates, we live near the beginning of the golden age of biotechnology," Kass said in his speech. "For the most part, we should be glad that we do."

His talk, "Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Perfection," focused on the ethics of using modern science to perfect the minds and bodies of human beings, part of the focus of the lecture series.

Kass was the first speaker for the forum when it was created in 1989.

"He was our alpha and we hope he won't be our omega," said Jerry Weinberger, director of the LeFrak Forum. Weinberger gives a lecture at 8 p.m. on Feb. 6 in the Kellogg Center auditorium.

The series consists of four lectures and culminates with a conference. The forum and symposium conduct research and debate on the theory and practice of modern democracy. They sponsor lectures, conferences, publications and teaching along with graduate, post-doctoral, and senior fellowships.

Kass set the tone for the rest of series by addressing the possible consequences of a perfection-driven world.

"In life, modern biology is just hitting puberty, we suspect that we ain't seen nothing yet," he said. "We've also seen more than enough to make us a little anxious and concerned.

"We are concerned about what others might do to us and also what we might do to ourselves."

Kass questioned what would happen if biotechnology allowed everyone to live long lives, where bodies never progressed past the condition of an average 30-year-old and deaths occurred without any sort of decline in health.

"We'd be like light bulbs, burning as brightly from beginning to end but then popping off without warning and leaving everyone around us suddenly without a clue," he said.

The last two lectures will elaborate on those issues, addressing eugenics and regulations of biotechnology.

"This push towards biotechnological perfection strikes me as the wave of the future, one that will sneak up on us before we know it and if we are not careful, sweep us up and tow us under," Kass said.

"It is up to us now to think about these matters."