Cloning Around in Missouri
My Father-in-Law has an op-ed in the Springfield News-Leader about the lies being propogated by the advocates of embryonic stem-cell research here in Missouri.
Proposition 2 is a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution authorizing funding for Fetal stem-cell research, and we are being treated to a blitzkreig campaign (financed by former pro-life Senator John Danforth and his rich cronies) claiming that the blind shall see and the lame shall be cured, and that no human cloning will occur in the process if we only allow more government money (i.e. our taxes, taken unwillingly from our pockets by force of arms) to flow into the coffers of Big Research.
Of course, the tear-jerker adds (including a wheel-chair bound young man who tells us he will walk if only we can kill a few million pre-born babies) do not tell us that no cure has ever come from embryonic stem-cells, but that many have come from adult and cordate cells-which do not require the creation of life so that it can be harvested, and they flat-out lie when they claim there is no cloning involved. Actually, in Clitnonian parsing, they say that there is no human cloning by which they mean no reproductive cloning-they are not making new people because they are cloning embryos then killing them before they come to term. If you believe human life rests solely on awareness, that one must be sentient to be human, then their definition is correct. This is therapeutic cloning, cloning a human being but killing him/her at the earliest stages for harvest. This is antithetical to Danforth`s professed beliefs over the years, and his turn-around illustrates the truth (which I have always suspected) that Danforth used the pro-life movement for his political fortune. What a hypocrite!
A civilization which sees human life in terms of utility, rather than believing there is an intrinsic value in our humanity and that human life is a sacred gift, will ultimately have no problem with Kevorkianing the elderly, the handicapped, the sick. Consider how easy it would have been to put Stephen Hawking out of his misery, since he suffers from Lou Gherig`s disease. Why should he be kept alive, when all he can do is sit in a chair and think?
I am mindful of science fiction writer Larry Niven`s ``Organ Bank Problem``; in his Known Space stories society is horribly disfigured by the ability to transplant organs. The demand for transplants (which had become very easy to do successfully) grows to the point that the public is willing to tolerate ANY trampling of civil rights and has lost all respect for the sanctity of human life. People convicted of a crime (and eventually even traffic offenses) are disassembled to be used as spare parts. A black market in body parts forms because the demand outstrips the supply, and unlucky people are kidnapped and dismantled for profit.
The use of embryos is a first step in this direction. Do we really want to be a society which preys on the helpless for the benefit of their betters? Cloning and harvesting fetal cells will lead to that horrible future. Once we accept the moral decision involved-that human life is expendable for our conventience-then we have started down the road to perdition. We cannot allow this to go any further.
Remember, if you let them come for others, you cannot complain when they come for you.
Here is the website of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures (notice their name is a lie) and you will find their opponents at NoCloning.org.
Proposition 2 is a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution authorizing funding for Fetal stem-cell research, and we are being treated to a blitzkreig campaign (financed by former pro-life Senator John Danforth and his rich cronies) claiming that the blind shall see and the lame shall be cured, and that no human cloning will occur in the process if we only allow more government money (i.e. our taxes, taken unwillingly from our pockets by force of arms) to flow into the coffers of Big Research.
Of course, the tear-jerker adds (including a wheel-chair bound young man who tells us he will walk if only we can kill a few million pre-born babies) do not tell us that no cure has ever come from embryonic stem-cells, but that many have come from adult and cordate cells-which do not require the creation of life so that it can be harvested, and they flat-out lie when they claim there is no cloning involved. Actually, in Clitnonian parsing, they say that there is no human cloning by which they mean no reproductive cloning-they are not making new people because they are cloning embryos then killing them before they come to term. If you believe human life rests solely on awareness, that one must be sentient to be human, then their definition is correct. This is therapeutic cloning, cloning a human being but killing him/her at the earliest stages for harvest. This is antithetical to Danforth`s professed beliefs over the years, and his turn-around illustrates the truth (which I have always suspected) that Danforth used the pro-life movement for his political fortune. What a hypocrite!
A civilization which sees human life in terms of utility, rather than believing there is an intrinsic value in our humanity and that human life is a sacred gift, will ultimately have no problem with Kevorkianing the elderly, the handicapped, the sick. Consider how easy it would have been to put Stephen Hawking out of his misery, since he suffers from Lou Gherig`s disease. Why should he be kept alive, when all he can do is sit in a chair and think?
I am mindful of science fiction writer Larry Niven`s ``Organ Bank Problem``; in his Known Space stories society is horribly disfigured by the ability to transplant organs. The demand for transplants (which had become very easy to do successfully) grows to the point that the public is willing to tolerate ANY trampling of civil rights and has lost all respect for the sanctity of human life. People convicted of a crime (and eventually even traffic offenses) are disassembled to be used as spare parts. A black market in body parts forms because the demand outstrips the supply, and unlucky people are kidnapped and dismantled for profit.
The use of embryos is a first step in this direction. Do we really want to be a society which preys on the helpless for the benefit of their betters? Cloning and harvesting fetal cells will lead to that horrible future. Once we accept the moral decision involved-that human life is expendable for our conventience-then we have started down the road to perdition. We cannot allow this to go any further.
Remember, if you let them come for others, you cannot complain when they come for you.
Here is the website of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures (notice their name is a lie) and you will find their opponents at NoCloning.org.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 12:02 PM
1 Comments:
Isn't it amazing how people allow their emotions to be manipulated, rather than take the effort to think things through. In other words, far too many people are lazy-minded and are quite happy to let those in authority make their decisions for them.
"A civilization which sees human life in terms of utility, rather than believing there is an intrinsic value in our humanity and that human life is a sacred gift, will ultimately have no problem with Kevorkianing the elderly, the handicapped, the sick."
Correct. Take God and the sacredness of life out of the picture and any evil is possible. Because under such a mode of thinking there *is* no good and evil. Indeed, evil is called good and good evil.
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