Bush Vetos Stem Cell Research
Just when I was starting to like Andrew Sullivan, he comes along and writes this:
"But when a very significant number of Americans feel deeply that this really is morally unconscionable, and when the research is taking place anyway under other auspices, I see no reason why the feds should actively finance this research as well. I don't think that Bush's compromise is so unreasonable, in other words. This isn't a ban on such research; it's a decision not to throw the weight of federal financing behind it. I respect the case of those who favor it; but, when push comes to shove, I'm with Bush on this. It took political courage to take this stand."
This is what it comes down to. "But when a very significant number of Americans feel deeply that this really is morally unconscionable..."
Empirical science and logic must trump faith-based morality in making public policy. Hundreds of thousands of embryos that were created only for the purpose of implantation are inevitably going to be destroyed. There is no scenario where we can choose between implanting them or using them for research. The only choice is whether to use them or just dispose of them. Those are the only real alternatives.
What kind of political courage is demonstrated when Bush, faced with the choice of making a gesture to the anti-abortion fanatics that won't save one life or allowing research that could save millions chooses the former?
I wonder if Sullivan would commend Bush for his political courage if the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage had reached Bush's desk and he had signed it?
Meanwhile, Dennis Prager was his usual idiotic self today. He read a sentence from the New York Times's article on the stem cell issue where the Times said that these embryos are he size of the typographical period at the end of a sentence in the paper.
Prager said that if you look down on humans from a high enough altitude, we look as small as a period or even smaller. It isn't the size of a human being, he said, that matters.
This is either as stupid as it appears-confusing actual and perceived size-or insidiously clever and disingenuous. Prager's listeners who are too dumb to understand the difference between scale and size will be convinced that embryo=adult person.
"But when a very significant number of Americans feel deeply that this really is morally unconscionable, and when the research is taking place anyway under other auspices, I see no reason why the feds should actively finance this research as well. I don't think that Bush's compromise is so unreasonable, in other words. This isn't a ban on such research; it's a decision not to throw the weight of federal financing behind it. I respect the case of those who favor it; but, when push comes to shove, I'm with Bush on this. It took political courage to take this stand."
This is what it comes down to. "But when a very significant number of Americans feel deeply that this really is morally unconscionable..."
Empirical science and logic must trump faith-based morality in making public policy. Hundreds of thousands of embryos that were created only for the purpose of implantation are inevitably going to be destroyed. There is no scenario where we can choose between implanting them or using them for research. The only choice is whether to use them or just dispose of them. Those are the only real alternatives.
What kind of political courage is demonstrated when Bush, faced with the choice of making a gesture to the anti-abortion fanatics that won't save one life or allowing research that could save millions chooses the former?
I wonder if Sullivan would commend Bush for his political courage if the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage had reached Bush's desk and he had signed it?
Meanwhile, Dennis Prager was his usual idiotic self today. He read a sentence from the New York Times's article on the stem cell issue where the Times said that these embryos are he size of the typographical period at the end of a sentence in the paper.
Prager said that if you look down on humans from a high enough altitude, we look as small as a period or even smaller. It isn't the size of a human being, he said, that matters.
This is either as stupid as it appears-confusing actual and perceived size-or insidiously clever and disingenuous. Prager's listeners who are too dumb to understand the difference between scale and size will be convinced that embryo=adult person.
posted by Peter L. Winkler | 1:09 PM
1 Comments:
Andrew Sullivan is a Time columnist, author and former editor of the New Republic. I think he's quite intelligent and nondogmatic.
After he posted his messge on his blog he later posted two responsesvfrom readers who disgreed with him.
I've neen reading nhis blog recently and will contimue to do so. One disagreement is not enough to permanently alienate me, especially since he is intellectually flexible enough to be open to opposing arguments.
Prager is a syndicated radio talk show host and columnist. I find him to be reflexively partisan and reactionary, but I love to hate him.
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