In the first "Jurassic Park" movie an interesting principle was advanced. One of the scientists was discussing the prospect of meddling with the creation of life and asked the question, "Just because we can does that mean that we should?"

In this Information Age perhaps it is time to ask the same questions of the science of information gathering and dissemination.

The tenet of free speech and access to information is the very foundation of this nation yet, every once in awhile, certain information comes to light that makes me ask myself if such free access is as good an idea as it once was.

Case in point? The recent troubling studies coming out of Russia and Chechoslovokia that indicate a net financial gain to society as a result of early deaths from the use of tobacco.

Having prematurely lost a sister to smoking related illness early this year it was a report I read with disgust. But there it was. Not that these reports were advocating smoking, they were simply reporting "the truth".

But I was compelled to question the wisdom of publishing such a study. Who will this information serve? In the middle of a worldwide effort to educate smokers about the hazards to their collective health, here is a study that actually finds a societal "benefit" to smoking.

According to these studies, substantial savings in retirement and health benefits could be had if people smoked more and died early.
With the tendency of reducing everything to the "bottom line" in this country I can hardly wait for some entrepreneurial type to find a way to make money by encouraging people to smoke more.

Robert Bloch wrote a short story years ago entitled "The Monkey House" that chronicled a time in the not too distant future when rampant population growth spawned the necessity for what he called "Ethical Suicide Parlors". Signposts resembling today's fund raising target poles were placed about the city and monitored world population by the minute. Anytime people felt they could best help society by removing themselves from it, they were encouraged to visit one of the parlors where pleasant young ladies worked at administering lethal doses of drugs to their clients.

I remember when I read that story wondering what would have to happen to a society to reduce itself to such measures. Thanks to the studies from eastern Europe I now know what would have been the first steps.

You say we are far too civilized to sacrifice the health and proper care of our citizens to the almighty dollar? Read the fine print in your HMO policy and we'll talk again.