Parkinsn's Email List Message
Posting to the Parkinsn List is a benefit of Subscription
Right-Wing Child Killers
P-I-E-N-O News Discussion and Search
| Mail converted by MHonArc 2.6.10 | Site Hosting donated by He.net
& Grant from The Parkinson Alliance |
The Right-wing Child Killers
By DarkSyd || Category - Science
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the past, on various Blogs and threads, I've seen comments from those who
oppose Embryonic Stem Cell Research which echo the concern that ESCR is
unacceptable, because it kills people. These objections usually come from
members of the Right to Life (RtL). The RtL is composed of a great many members
of the Neo-Christian Right, who routinely post on the issue of ethics as well,
often berating anyone who does not share their religion and practice it as they
see fit, as morally inferior. The basis being, that without a Divine Overlord
setting down what is and is not moral from On High, any system of morality
collapses to relativism. And for some reason relativism is a bad thing,
compared to their hypothetical absolute code of ethics.
I have a nit-pick with the RtL and the entire Neo-Christian Right in the
context of ESCR, and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) ... Well for me it's a
nit-pick. Using their own definitions, for them it's a fatal blow if they wish
to maintain their political support of anyone in office and still lay claim to
the glorious mantle of absolute morality. Not to mention it makes them, most of
them anyway, passively or actively complicit child-killers by their own
definition ...
In a typical IVF pregnancy, many eggs are harvested from the woman's ovaries,
fertilized in a petrii dish (Hence the In Vitro part) and the fertilized ova
are then allowed to develop to the blastula stage-roughly 100 cells. This is
done to weed out nonviable candidates, because often enough, a good portion of
the fertilized eggs do not develop normally. Those that do develop normally are
then stored cryogenically, and implanted in the hopeful mother's womb over
time, usually several at once. The end result is that thousands of children are
born annually to childless couples who would not otherwise exist. Inevitably,
there are blastocytes left over from time to time, and that's where the
material for Embryonic Stem Cell Research comes from.
If destroying a fertilized human egg is defined as killing people, and any
industry in which human embryos are destroyed is in the child-murder business,
then IVF Clinics are a miniature death camps. Yet I could find no pending Bills
in either house of Congress, or suggested by the White House, even mentioning
the idea of banning IVF in the US. And the reason is simple: It's a political
loser.
Any politician who tries it will get the living shit knocked out of him, as
picture after picture of cute, photogenic children, and their joyful parents,
are presented by his opponents with soundbites scrolling above from little IVF
Johnny & Suzie asking "Mr Senator, why do you wish I was dead?" Instead they
went after ESCR, which did not save a single human embryo from destruction, in
the infamous GOP bait and switch con which is so effective on the dopy,
incredulous, Neo-Christian Right.
"Won't Someone Please Think of the Children?"- Mrs Lovejoy on The Simpsons
Absolute-adjective: Complete, entire, total, unadulterated, without exception
... Why haven't our right-wing moral absolutists, who assure us their morality
is superior and invariant, come out against IVF with everything they've got? Or
if they have, and they define anyone who passively or actively allows this
wanton slaughter of innocent babies to continue unabated as accomplices in
child-murder, how can they possibly vote for anyone who does not stand against
it, and who is doing everything they can to stop it? How does an absolutists
position on the most heart wrenching of crimes, the murder of children in their
own definition, get an exception if the underlying morality is absolute? My
goodness, won't somoene please think of the children? How can they oppose ESCR,
which doesn't save a single 'person' and vote accordingly, but turn a blind eye
to IVF, and vote for those murdering child-killers?
The answer is of course, it's convenient for them to ignore it, because their
political ideology trumps their morality, thus rendering them a lowly
relativist.
Thus I say unto Ye: Wingers, we welcome you to our relativist ranks, and hope
that your past arrogance and inability to reason, will fan the flames of anger
at being exposed, and off you'll go on another hysterical twisted
rationalization for our amusement.
We have a saying here at NASA: Cheap, fast, safe, pick any two. Do they
understand the lesson there? You cannot be a moral absolutist, oppose ESCR on
the grounds that it's killing people, and not apply the exact same rationale to
IVF. Of course they cook up contrived bullshit to rationalize it; I mean we are
after all talking about people who believe they have a personal relationship
with a magic invisible sky wizard, but of course they understand how hopelessly
screwed they are. It is excruciatingly simple, and they're hung out to dry on
it.
Without IVF, there are no embryos for ESCR!. Blaming the destruction of embryos
on ESCR, is exactly like blaming the destruction of trees on a kid who takes a
chunk of wood out of the scrap pile at a construction site, before the dump
truck comes along and hauls it off.
IVF Clinics are where human blastocytes come from which are used in research
such as ESCR. They either go down the toilet, or they make new stem cells
lines, (Or they go to some other kind of research). And thousands go down the
toilet, because far too many are produced from IVF for ESCR to ever use.
When President Bush banned Federal Funds for ESCR lines in 2001, it did not
save one, single, human embryo. Not one. It was a ruse, a ploy, and you bought
it Mr. & Mrs. Neo-Christian, hook line, and sinker.
Go ahead, theists absolutists, try and cook up some convoluted nonsense for why
you can vote for those who turn a blind eye to thousands of child murders every
year. It will be entertaining for us to watch you wallow around in your own
mess. It's the kind of hysterical antics from the religious right that makes us
chuckle (I can just hear some arm chair philosopher make some kind of twisted
pitch that you can apply absolute morality relatively, and still be right the
Lord-eh. Because it says so in this here verse if you read it right ... ).
Laughter and ridicule is what you'll get. And that is actually being good
natured about it: Considering that this arbitrary moral lunacy over ESCR Vs
IVF, could well be stifling the most important field of medical research, since
the discovery of penicillin.
Posted by DarkSyd at February 3, 2005 04:16 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brentrasmussen.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/357
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Right-wing Child Killers:
» The truth about Stem Cell Research from Fab's Musings
Excellent post on Stem Cell Research, and above all, why the right's objection
to it is pure politics, and not a moral stand. The paragraph below is a good
summary: The Right-wing Child Killers: Without IVF, there are no embryos for
ESCR!. Blaming the de [Read More]
Tracked on February 4, 2005 03:05 PM
Comments
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn