Stanford Report, Mar. 3, 2004

MORE THAN 14,000 AMENDMENTS to the U.S. Constitution have been proposed since its adoption in 1787, but only 27 have passed, including one that was later repealed. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Feb. 25 that the amendment enacting Prohibition for 13 years is being described by some legal historians as a forerunner of the federal marriage amendment endorsed Feb. 24 by President George W. Bush: a restriction on individual rights, based on majority views of morality, imposed nationwide in an area traditionally regulated by states. JACK RAKOVE, the Coe Professor of History and American Studies, said the "closest comparison would be to Prohibition, an exercise in moral policing. American federalism has historically rested on the idea that states are competent to decide what kind of social morality they want to enforce."

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reported Feb. 28 that dissecting human bodies in medical school anatomy labs is being gradually replaced by virtual instruction. Last year, Stanford instituted a 25 percent reduction in the time students spend in the lab. Now the instructors do much of the most tedious work -- sawing through craniums, for example -- leaving students with the more intellectually stimulating tasks of searching for nerves and arteries. DORA CASTAÑEDA and her fiancé, ERIK CABRAL, first-year medical students, were featured in the story as they dissected the cheeks of a 57-year-old woman. "She's looking for arteries," Cabral said. "I'm looking for nerves -- how you sense a kiss." JOHN GOSLING, professor of anatomy in surgery, feels increasing pressure from administrators to condense dissection. "I think there's a bottom line," he said, "and I think we've reached it." At Stanford, all three anatomy teachers are about 60, and they are left pondering their own mortality. "The three of us are at the end of our careers," Gosling said. "We will be difficult to replace."

THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY'S pursuit of tough new laws to protect copyrighted materials from online piracy is bad for business and the economy, according to a report released March 1 by the respected Committee for Economic Development. The New York Times reported that, until recently, those who opposed strong copyright protections have been characterized by the entertainment industry as a leftist fringe with no respect for the value of intellectual property. Law Professor LAWRENCE LESSIG, one of the most prominent critics of attempts to increase control over copyrighted material, applauded the new report. "I think it's exciting," he said. "The points they are making are obviously right, but the only way people will get it is if more credible, mainstream organizations begin to utter it."