Here is a fairly good article from Rick Esenberg an adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School on Stem cells and semantics. Which to me brings up the point if proponents of abortion and ESCR are on the side of good why is it that they have to obfuscate and lie in support of their advocacy. If their moral points were so strong then why do they have to hide behind concrete bunkers of words that give no light to what they are supporting? Is this just a case of elites doing what they think is best for us and putting the debate in terms that is like putting medicine in baby food so the child won’t notice. That we can’t be expected to truly understand the debate so they have to frame it to make it more palatable for us.
Thomas at American Papist posts on the several bills in the Senate related to stem-cell research and specifically addresses ANT/OAR procedure which is suppose to be an ethical method of embryonic stem-cell production that would not destroy a human embryo. There is definitely a debate within orthodox Catholic circles on this topic and good people have come down on either side of the question. Thomas is opposed to this bill and I would agree with him. Until such time as this debate is truly settled we should err on the side of life and not support this procedure. David at Cosmos-Litugry-Sex has posted much on this subject and concurs with Thomas that this bill should not be supported.
The ESCR debate only brings into sharper focus what it means to be truly pro-life. Within political circles it also highlights the softness of so-called pro-life politicians. It seems to me there are just a handful of people in the House and the Senate that are fully pro-life. Some talk the talk but just like the many previously pro-life Democrats that changed their minds when they ran for higher offices I am sure there are also plenty of Republicans that would advocate whatever position makes them more popular. With Sen Majority Leader Bill Frist, McCain and many others who don’t see a problem with ESCR you know we are in for a rough ride. It is consistent for abortion supporter to also support ESCR and you can see why they can’t budge on this issue.
While listening to talk shoes during the effort to save Terri Schiavo I woke up to how thin the veneer was that the GOP was pro-life. Many couldn’t recognize the humanity of Terri Schiavo and once again they can’t recognize the humanity of human embryo’s. The Functionalist view of activity or the stage of human development being how you determined human personhood is now prevalent. Ramesh Ponnuru calls the Democratic Party the Party of Death in his new book and there is much truth to that. The GOP is in serious danger of aiding and abetting the culture of death. Unfortunately talking about the personhood of someone after conception doesn’t fit into a sound bite or a quick quip from the Senate floor.
A great article on personhood is one by Peter Kreeft Human Personhood Begins at Conception.
4 comments
I think your use of the term “veneer” is extraordinarily accurate. Many people that would check “pro-life” if forced to choose think only about the question of abortion as they’ve been made to think of it – in the closed form of the classic sense. But taking the next step to understand the fuller application of this concept to other areas of life is just a bridge too far for them.
While listening to talk shoes
Are they anything like Maxwell Smart’s shoe-phone?
I think Michael Savage had a mesmerizing show during the Terri Schiavo crisis. He read excerpts from the writings of Nazi Dr. Mengele, and I was riveted by how familiar his arguments for ‘life unworthy of life’ sounded. As the mother of a Down Syndrome child, I was chilled to the core, and remember that the handicapped were only the first to be gassed.
Remember this one, it may be prophetic:
First they came for the Jews, and I didn’t protest, because I’m not a Jew, then they came for the gypsies, and I didn’t protest because I’m not a gypsy. . . and then they came for me, and I cried for help in vain, for there was no one left.
All who read Peter Kreeft now can understand this: there really is orthodoxy and sound intelligence in Jesuit Universities- even Boston College.