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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 404
September 22, 2000
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up, Web sites that reveal the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders. Is it a safeguard or an injustice?
Unidentified Man: I've already been punished by the courts. I'm still being punished by the courts. Does society have a right to punish me, too?
ABERNETHY: And America's Muslim women clinging to religious tradition in the midst of a new and different culture.
Welcome. I'm Bob Abernethy. It's good to have you with us.
BOB ABERNETHY: Several developments this week in the complex world of biomedical ethics. In England, a controversial court ruling in the case of Siamese twins. On Friday, an appeals court said doctors may separate the girls, against the parents' wishes. Separating the twins would save one and kill the other, but without the procedure, doctors said both girls would die. The parents, who are Roman Catholic, said God's will should decide their daughters' fate. British Catholic leaders strongly supported the parents' position.
BOB ABERNETHY: Here in the U.S., new concerns about research into genetic modification. A panel of prominent scientists, ethicists and theologians warned that altering human genes to create more perfect offspring is neither safe nor responsible at this time. The new report, by an American Association for the Advancement of Science panel, called for a public committee to begin immediate oversight of current research and development. The report said serious ethical and religious issues must be addressed as research policy is formulated.
BOB ABERNETHY: In Pennsylvania, prominent ethicist Arthur Caplan was named as a defendant in a lawsuit, surrounding a fatal gene-therapy experiment. Eighteen-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died last year while undergoing experimental gene-therapy treatment for a rare liver disorder. His family is suing the University of Pennsylvania research team. In an unprecedented legal move, they're including Caplan, who is director of bioethics at Penn. Caplan provided moral advice to the researchers. According to the family's lawyer, he also helped write the informed consent form, which the lawsuit alleges underestimated the risks. Caplan has declined to comment.
BOB ABERNETHY: In a controversial move, Duke University Medical Center has agreed to supply human tissue left over from surgery to the Ardaus Corporation, a for-profit biotechnology firm. Duke will donate tissue from surgery on cancer tumors. Duke is the second hospital to join with Ardaus, which hopes to create a nationwide library of tissue samples to sell to genetic researchers. Patients must consent to the arrangement, but medical ethics scholars raised several questions, such as whether patient privacy can be protected.
BOB ABERNETHY: In other news, in an effort to avoid possible sexual-abuse incidents, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is instituting a new background check policy. Criminal background checks will be run on all current and prospective employees and volunteers who work with children, the disabled and the elderly. And the policy eventually will be extended to priests. A spokesman for the archdiocese said the new policy is not a crackdown, but a reaction to the allegations of sexual abuse by church workers over the past decade.
BOB ABERNETHY: And now our cover story: publicity for sex offenders. It's hard to think of any offense more difficult to forgive than sexual assault, especially on a child, but many offenders say they're being unfairly punished: once by the criminal justice system; a second time by their neighbors, particularly where the names and addresses of sexual offenders are made public. Do convicted sex offenders have rights to privacy? What are the rights of society to protect children? Lucky Severson reports on this conflict.
LUCKY SEVERSON: You might find Karen Meneke staring through the screen door of her comfortable Long Island home, as if she is expecting trouble, although this hardly seems like a dangerous neighborhood.
Ms. KAREN MENEKE: In May, we found out that a sex offender is living on our block, and we weren't informed by the police.
SEVERSON: The sex offender grew up in this neighborhood and moved back in with his mom after serving time in jail. Like many neighbors here, Karen Meneke was worried about her two daughters.
Ms. MENEKE: And I was really upset, OK? And I didn't know what to do. So my neighbor called the advocate for Megan's Law in Suffolk County, Laura Ahearn.
Ms. LAURA AHEARN: (On telephone) So what's going on? Have you gotten a new portrait?
SEVERSON: Laura Ahearn is a woman to be reckoned with; a social worker turned crusader, determined to identify and stop sexual predators.
Ms. AHEARN: In any case where a sex offender is seriously sexually assaulting, changing a child's life forever, there is no excuse.
SEVERSON: She founded a watchdog group, like many that have sprung up around the country, called Parents for Megan's Law.
Mr. PETER JENNINGS: (From December 6, 1993, news broadcast) In the search for 12-year-old Polly Klaas...
SEVERSON: That's the law Congress passed after two brutal and highly publicized murders of little girls: Polly Klaas by a convicted felon in California in 1993...
Unidentified Anchor: (From May 23, 1997, news broadcast) ...the case that inspired so-called Megan's Law.
SEVERSON: ...and the rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994 by a twice-convicted pedophile. Megan's Law requires a state to notify communities when sex offenders move into a neighborhood. And now, with the Internet, sex offenders' addresses, their offenses and sometimes their pictures are posted on Web sites around the country. But state laws vary, and New York had not notified Karen Meneke. She found out about the sex offender in her neighborhood from Laura Ahearn's Web site.
Ms. AHEARN: Right now we're -- we have about 1,000 per hour, people visiting the site.
SEVERSON: The neighbors held a town meeting to discuss their unwelcomed neighbor. They didn't know it, but he was there listening in.
Unidentified Man: One woman even asked, 'How do we know if this person still looks the same way?' You know, they had my picture up on a screen. And I was sitting in the back going, 'Lady, you don't even know I'm here now.'
SEVERSON: The 51-year-old father was released after serving six months for deviant sexual intercourse with his 13-year-old daughter and sexually abusing his 16-year-old son.
Unidentified Man: You know, I thought my marriage was crumbling, and I involved my children in my needs, and it was totally wrong.
SEVERSON: Because he is considered a serious offender, his name will stay on a New York state registry for at least 10 years.
Unidentified Man: I've already been punished by the courts. I'm still being punished by the courts. Does society have a right to punish me, too?
SEVERSON: Megan's Law's supporters say crime sentences are too light and that high-risk offenders cannot be rehabilitated, but an increasing number of critics question the ethics and the fairness of the law. They say sex offenders are punished twice; that they are constantly harassed and driven underground, where they are more likely to offend again.
Unidentified Man: I'm worried that, you know, at some point my job could be threatened if this ever gets out. Web sites have my address, and I -- we get a lot of cars driving by very slowly, staring at me. It's like people driving by the "Amityville Horror." You know, 'Oh, my God, that's the place.'
Dr. ROBERT FREEMAN-LONGO (Therapist): The law feels good, it sounds good, but is it really doing the job it's supposed to do?
SEVERSON: Robert Freeman-Longo is an expert in the treatment of sexual abusers.
Dr. FREEMAN-LONGO: For the majority of cases I'm seeing now, you know, it's had devastating effects on their lives and the lives of others.
SEVERSON: In Texas, you can find information about sexual offenders on Texas-size billboards, and it is one of many states that now lists registries on the Internet.
This 16-year-old confessed to molesting his brother's three-year-old daughter.
Unidentified Teen: Since that day, you know, it's now like all my life has just gone downhill.
SEVERSON: He's on probation until he's 18, then he'll be listed on the registry for 10 years after that.
Unidentified Teen: I've been trying to get my life together because of this, and each time I think it's going right, somebody new finds out and then bugs me about it. It's been real hard for me because of the Internet.
SEVERSON: A session with his therapist, Carlos Loredo, who has a number of clients in Austin, Texas, who are juvenile sex offenders.
Dr. CARLOS LOREDO (Therapist): Clearly he shouldn't have done that. Clearly it hurt the child and his family. But that's real different from someone who has predatory-type history with a number of different victims over a number of years.
SEVERSON: Loredo says the boy has been fired from his job because of the registry and, like a lot of his clients, harassed and forced to move from their neighborhoods.
Have you been harassed? Do you think that Laura Ahearn fits into that category?
Unidentified Man: Oh, definitely. My feeling is what she's doing is a vigilante act. A vigilante is someone who thinks that the law hasn't done enough, and they're going to take matters into their own hands.
SEVERSON: He is right, Laura Ahearn does not think the law has done enough.
Ms. AHEARN: We need to require that individuals that commit these kinds of crimes against children to go to jail for a longer period of time.
Ms. MENEKE: And I was devastated when I looked at that registry and saw that a lot of the people don't go to jail very long, and I felt that our government doesn't care about our children.
Ms. AHEARN: So they're taking that outrage and directing that outrage toward those offenders that are known and convicted, and they see, in situations like this one offender you interviewed, there was a -- very little time that was actually served for the -- that crime.
SEVERSON: If he murdered someone, he wouldn't be on the registry.
Ms. AHEARN: He would be in jail for the rest of his life.
SEVERSON: Proponents of Megan's Law argue that sex offenders are more likely to offend again than other criminals.
Ms. AHEARN: There's a much higher recidivism rate if you're looking at high-risk sex offenders.
SEVERSON: Critics say that is not true, at least not for many juveniles.
Dr. FREEMAN-LONGO: The data tells us that once apprehended, put in treatment, their chances of recidivism are tremendously low. Most of these kids will do well. They'll emerge into adulthood relatively healthy and not sexually offending.
SEVERSON: Not all sex offenders are listed on registries, only those considered a risk to society, but the guidelines vary from state to state.
Dr. FREEMAN-LONGO: There are cases where 12-year-old kids and younger have been put on registries for one-time offenses because it's a sex offense; if you will, a nuisance offense, like exposing oneself, as one often refers to those crimes, or window peeping.
SEVERSON: But research has shown that the greatest danger for kids is not the stranger.
Dr. FREEMAN-LONGO: Eighty percent to 90 percent of children who are sexually abused are abused by people known to that child, and oftentimes the family.
SEVERSON: If a man abuses his children, how does it make him predatory?
Ms. AHEARN: His children have friends, and his children's friends could be sleeping over his home, and he could be targeting those children. It's a serious risk, and it's a realistic risk.
SEVERSON: Critics argue that the greatest danger of the registries is that they lull a community into feeling safe.
Ms. MENEKE: I was worried because he didn't know that we were informed of his crime, that he could do it to our children, and our children would be hurt. Now that it's publicized, we don't have to be afraid anymore.
Unidentified Man: If I were of a mind to abuse neighborhood children, I just wouldn't do it to my neighborhood.
SEVERSON: Unfortunately, there is no evidence, no studies yet to prove that Karen Meneke's neighborhood or any neighborhood is safer because of Megan's Law, but the neighbors feel safer and will resist any attempt to change the law. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Lucky Severson in Long Island.
Unidentified Child: Watch out!
BOB ABERNETHY: In other news, a nostalgic and Bible-quoting President Clinton this week addressed a bishops conference of the Church of God in Christ. Clinton said a major struggle in America today is to make people proud of their religious and ethnic heritage. The predominantly black Pentecostal denomination has been among Clinton's strongest supporters throughout his political career. The president said his one wish for the nation would be that America could, quote, "lay down enough of our demons to be one America and live together."
BOB ABERNETHY: Meanwhile, a new poll this week reports while Americans embrace a role for religion in the nation's political life, they're deeply conflicted over the shape and extent of that involvement. According to the survey by the Pew Research Center For The People & The Press, 70 percent of voters prefer a president with strong religious beliefs, but half also say they're uncomfortable when politicians discuss how religious they are. Fifty-one percent believe churches should express their views on social issues, but 64 percent say clergy should not talk politics.
BOB ABERNETHY: On the eve of the Jewish High Holy Days, which begin next Friday evening, a symbolic move toward more acceptance of Jews in Russia. President Vladimir Putin helped open a new Jewish community center in Moscow that will provide a place for Jews to learn about their heritage. Among those at the opening, Israel's chief rabbi, Meir Lau, and former Soviet prisoner of conscience Natan Sharansky. Putin said the center represents a new era of tolerance. There have been concerns about ongoing anti-Semitism in Russia. The new center is next to a synagogue which has been the target of several attacks, including a bombing in 1998.
BOB ABERNETHY: And in Iran, an appeals court reduced, by several years, the sentences of 10 Jews convicted of spying for Israel. International Jewish groups say the men were wrongly convicted. The U.S. government and the Vatican are among those who had raised concerns about whether the Jews had received a fair trial. The appeals court upheld the convictions. The Iranian judiciary chief said the sentence reductions were the ultimate of Islamic kindness and generosity.
BOB ABERNETHY: Now American freedom and Muslim tradition. What's it like for young Muslim women to live in a culture in which it sometimes seems that anything goes? Of the world's more than one billion Muslims, it's estimated between three million and six million live in the U.S.; they include immigrants from more than 60 nations, as well as many African-Americans. Anisa Medhi talked with several American Muslim women about stereotypes and head scarves, drinking and dating.
ANISA MEDHI: Muslims are linked by their faith to fellow Muslims around the world. In Islam, like other major religions, there is a wide range of interpretations, beliefs and practices. Muslims from different cultures have varying views on the roles of women.
The Akbars of Saginaw, Michigan, moved to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1976.
Dr. RAANA AKBAR: Muslims in America are very lucky because this is the one country where you can practice Islam as it was brought to humanity. The rights of the individual are protected in Islam. The rights of society are protected in Islam. The Constitution of the United States of America does precisely that.
MEDHI: Dr. Raana Akbar, an allergist, and her husband, Dr. Waheed Akbar, an orthopedic surgeon, appreciate America's religious rights and freedoms, but these same freedoms pose great challenges to Muslims, as well as to many other parents, in raising families.
Dr. R. AKBAR: When the girls were growing up, it was rather shocking for me that some of their classmates started drinking when they were 12 or even younger and were sexually promiscuous. And that we do not see in Muslim society. I used to think that they would do drugs, they would drink alcohol, that they would date, and though -- you know, all those things bothered me tremendously. And it was one of my nightmares that -- and I used to sometimes argue with Waheed that we should go back because, there, we would be certain of the girls following the faith.
MEDHI: The Akbars' daughters, Amna and Zainab, now in their early 20s, worked on Capitol Hill this summer. They maintained their traditions in the face of pressure to be part of mainstream culture.
Ms. ZAINAB AKBAR: There are certain people who I didn't know -- who didn't know that I was Muslim. When I told them, they're like, 'What? You don't drink? I thought you -- you're a partier, man. Like, you -- your personality's so out there. I -- you're not Muslim.' Like, people just -- you know, they assume that I'm going to be like, you know, 'Yes, I'll do what you say.'
MEDHI: They had to deal with public misconceptions about their faith, media images portraying Muslims as terrorists and stereotypes of repressed women.
Ms. AMNA AKBAR: I saw this portrait of, like, this homogeneous sea of women wearing chadors and, like, you know...
Ms. Z. AKBAR: Men in beards.
Ms. A. AKBAR: And men with beards.
Dr. R. AKBAR: And you keep on hearing this, this negative stereotyping. For us, you know, we were brought up in a culture which was Muslim, so we -- our self-identity is not going to be destroyed by this, but for our children, that's another matter.
MEDHI: Some of these stereotypes stem from how Muslim women are treated in some societies abroad.
Dr. WAHEED AKBAR: For the majority of the Muslim countries, the problem has been it has been very much controlled by the male. And over the years, they have tried to really suppress the equality in which the Muslimist -- Muslim women have been given.
MEDHI: Of course, American women often complain of unfair treatment here, too.
Ms. Z. AKBAR: Hey, we still get 65 cents for every dollar a guy gets. You know, we still get, you know, whistled at, hooted at, hollered at when we're walking down the street when we want to look nice, you know? And just because you see that as normal in this society doesn't mean that, like, we are completely free in society because we're not.
MEDHI: The creation story in Islam says that when God created humans, he didn't create Eve from Adam; rather, God created Adam and Eve as two separate, complementary beings. For Amna and Zainab, equality and freedom are important Islamic principles. They believe men and women are equal before God, although they have different responsibilities and roles.
The Akbars were raised to believe that acquiring knowledge is an Islamic imperative for both boys and girls. Their faith guides their career paths.
Ms. A. AKBAR: One of the key concepts in Islam and in the Koran is to work towards establishing a just society because God thinks of all people as equal.
Ms. Z. AKBAR: As Muslims, we're obliged, you know, if we see oppression, to do something about it. And, I mean, I think that's something that's been instilled in us by our parents and by our religion.
MEDHI: Muminah Ahmad was also born Muslim. Her parents converted to Islam in the 1970s. Like many other African-Americans, they were looking for a religion they felt stressed freedom from oppression and treated people of all races as equals. Unlike immigrant Muslims, whose religious practices are infused with their native culture, African-Americans build on American culture.
Ms. MUMINAH AHMAD: Our culture's American culture, so what we have to do is kind of take it on and just see how we can work our religious values into the American culture. We take the guidelines and we came up with our own styles and our own way of doing things.
MEDHI: Many American Muslim women dress modestly, in accordance with their understanding of the Koran. For Muminah and her sister, Sara, modesty means covering their hair. The head scarf, sometimes called hajab, is the most visible sign of being Muslim in the U.S.
Ms. SARA AHMAD: It says be modest and then, also, you know, lower your gaze. It also says to cover yourself as well. And this is where the interpretation then comes in, in terms of, you know, how do you feel that this is done?
Ms. M. AHMAD: I always see it as just keeping the -- keeping within the principles of my religion and trying to please my Lord, and in that, you know, different things that he commands us to do. And I don't see it as a sacrifice.
Ms. A. AKBAR: I respect women who wear hajab, and it is a struggle, especially in this society, because there's no -- when you're wearing hajab, then people see there's no question that you're Muslim.
MEDHI: They believe the Islamic values of modesty and self-control also guide the relationships between men and women.
Ms. M. AHMAD: The general rule is, OK, don't be alone in a situation where it may tempt you; that you may decide to, you know, do something that's not going to be conducive to a family --having a family.
MEDHI: Safe and wise advice as that may be, it would put a damper on the lifestyles of a lot of American young people. Dating for fun rather than with an eye for marriage is one of the things American Muslims know they shouldn't do.
Ms. M. AHMAD: I would say, like, going clubbing or going to dances, things like that, I know that there would be nothing I had to gain in a situation like that. You know what I mean? Although I might have a good time and I might enjoy myself, it's nothing that I would gain spiritually.
Ms. A. AKBAR: Both of us think it's important to have relationships with guys and girls and that -- but you have to know your bounds.
Ms. M. AHMAD: When you have the principles down, which -- you know what I mean? -- is ingrained in you, and you feel like you generally know what pleases God and what doesn't, it just feels right and you feel better when you make that choice.
MEDHI: American Muslim women are looking for a balance between the freedom and choice America has to offer and the cultural and religious values they hope to preserve and pass on to the next generation. I'm Anisa Medhi for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY.
BOB ABERNETHY: Finally, a good man died last weekend. He was Father Elwood Kieser, known as Bud Kieser, who worked, cajoled and prayed for 40 years to try to make Hollywood's movies and TV programs better.
Father Kieser was a priest in the Polist Order, which tries to bring the sacred into the secular world.
Father ELWOOD KIESER: See, I'm one guy, and I try to make the world better.
We can't make it perfect, but we can make it better.
ABERNETHY: Kieser was 6'7" tall and famous for his figurative arm-twisting. He produced the TV series "Insight," persuading top talent to work for him free. He also produced two feature films. One day, while he was swimming, he got the idea for the Humanitas Prizes, cash awards for the writers of movies and TV scripts who best celebrate human values. Although he opposed censorship, Kieser fought hard against superficial violence in pictures.
Fr. KIESER: It's dehumanizing. It's distorted. It makes -- it tells lies to these people. We've got to support good stuff and ignore or boycott bad stuff.
ABERNETHY: Kieser used his daily, one-hour meditations to help him focus on others.
Fr. KIESER: One of the problems in our society is narcissism, everybody worrying about number one. The hell with number one. You really find your happiness and your fulfillment and you forget all about number one in giving yourself to seek the welfare of other people.
ABERNETHY: Father Kieser died in Los Angeles last Saturday at the age of 71.
The cause was colon cancer. Last year he had summed up his career.
Fr. KIESER: ...world we find our peace, and I think this has been the will of God for me. It's been a good life. I'm happy with it.
BOB ABERNETHY: That's our program for now. I'm Bob Abernethy. To find out more about RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, log on to pbs.org or America Online, keyword PBS.
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