Brave New World

            About ten years ago, ABC NIGHTLINE did a story on a surrogate mother. According to her contract with the adoptive parents, if she became pregnant with twins, she would abort one. (Remind you of Solomon?)

            She refused. Lawsuit, anyone?

            Another story covered the case of a married couple, who through vitro fertilization conceived four children through donated sperm. The married couple divorced before birth. A legal controversy ensued: whom should the law force to pay child support? The ex-husband or the sperm donor?

            During this time, I was reading Aldous Huxley’s prescient novel—A BRAVE NEW WORLD. As I reflected on that novel and the events of early 2001, I, along with many others, were struck with this observation. For over fifty years, the western world was warned that George Orwell’s novel, 1984, was a forerunner of the future. This was incorrect. A BRAVE NEW WORLD has more effectively anticipated the postmodern world.

            If you have not read A BRAVE NEW WORLD, I would encourage you to do so. At least read the CLIFFSNOTES. You may surprised.