6:45 p.m. Passion Ministry

Sheila jammed home the phone. Looked up. “Well, hello, Rachel! Welcome to PR hell.”

“I...thought I could help.” Rachel glanced around the office. It looked as though brushed by a cyclone.

Pat sat nearby, speaking into a telephone, “...we’re aware of the Vatican’s condemnation. No. No comment.” She hung up and smiled at Rachel.

Sheila jabbed a half-eaten banana at her computer screen. “Going berserk trying to understand radiocarbon dating. Rumor has it the Catholic Church’s going to release a statement soon, condemning us for using ‘perverse technology’.”
           
“Perverse?” Rachel echoed. “But you know Jimmy. He’s just a little boy. Trust the Pope to sit in his ivory tower and spread fear! I’m not saying I’m all for it—in fact, I’m terrified—but a lot of good might come from biotechnology. We need more information before we reject it entirely.”
She tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. “I mean, just think about it. What’s crazier than the virginal conception? Mary giving birth to Jesus without sex or invitro or anything. It’s completely insane, but everyone’s bought it. So, why couldn’t Christ return as a clone?”

“Finding a cure for cancer from an Amazonian plant’s one thing,” Sheila said. “But devaluing human life’s another. We all love Jimmy, but where d’you draw the line? In fact, why not clone people without heads, in case you need a new heart or a kidney?”

“God’s given us this ability, isn’t it wrong not to use it?”

The phone rang. Sheila answered reluctantly.

“So,” Pat said, “you support mankind’s playing with nature no matter what the affect on the child.”

“What d’you mean?”

“Children have rights to be born naturally, not by human manipulation. Did you know there’re hundreds of thousands of embryos waiting in liquid nitrogen tanks just in America?” The elderly woman leaned forward in her chair. “What are they? Somebody’s child or a drop of ice? Who decides their fate? The state? The courts?”

Pat shuddered. “Suppose you cloned yourself to have a baby. Imagine the psychological damage that this poor child would suffer, lacking a unique identity, literally following in your footsteps.”

“But that already happens with identical twins. They’re nature’s clones. They can have different personalities, likes and dislikes. Environment’s a big influence.”

“Yes, but they’re the same age. With this, you could produce clones years apart. Someone could be their own mother.”

Sheila hung up the phone. “Vatican’s releasing a statement in four hours. Rachel, get me something I can understand on that carbon fourteen dating business.”

“Oh,” said Pat, “just a lot more scientific foolishness.”

The phone rang again.

Pat answered, “Praise the Lord, you’ve reached the Passion Ministry.”