Oh, for the Love of Monkeys

[forsyth]

Okay, so this biotech company goes to great lengths to assuage the totally hypocritical complaints of fundamentalists about stem cell research, right? They create a way to extract just one cell, from an embryo with 8, okay? So what's the reaction from fundamentalists? Let me quote the Seattle Times.

"Social conservatives already have begun complaining that the new technique falls short. They say the method does injure nascent embryos, and they question whether the cell that is removed from an embryo has the potential to develop on its own.""The new study ... raises more ethical questions than answers," said Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
...
Doerflinger said the safety of the single-cell biopsy procedure had not been scientifically established.
"Some embryos do not survive the process, and some survivors may have long-term effects later in life," he said."

So obviously, the answer is to ban it so we can't scientifically test it! Err. Wait.

Well, what does the President think? We all know how much concern he has for human life, after all.
"President Bush offered little encouragement Wednesday and, if anything, raised the bar higher, suggesting he would not be comfortable unless embryos were not involved at all.

"Any use of human embryos for research purposes raises serious ethical concerns," a statement released by the White House said. "The president is hopeful that with time scientists can find ways of deriving cells like those now derived from human embryos but without the need for using embryos.""

Um. Wow. Just on the scientific standpoint, the idiocy there is staggering. And the hypocrisy. Leaving aside the huge numbers of embryos just thrown out by fertility clinics, the only way to produce stem cells without using embryos would involve genetic engineering and other biotech that I'd be willing to bet Bush would be against too. But of course he can't just come out and oppose stem cell research and biotech in general, 1) because that'd be even more unpopular than anything else, since he'd be opposing life-saving technologies, and 2) because neither he nor any of his advisers actually have the slightest clue about science. So instead we get this bullshit smokescreen about "ethical issues" and the "inherent dignity of human life," which only lasts until they're born. For fuck's sake.

Slacktivist has more, of course.

Comments

[kalifla.livejournal.com]

I was ECSTATIC when I learned they could do this with one extracted cell.

That is still more life-promoting than killing one life to possibly prevent other deaths. This is the next stage to EVERYTHING GOOD ABOUT THE THEORY.

Bah. This project is enhancing human dignity.

"Lasts until they're born" indeed. :P

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

Hey, the Bush crew and the Falwell crew and all the other crazy fundamentalists are all about "protecting children" when they're masses of undifferentiated cells, but once they pop out of the womb, screw 'em. No medical care, support, etc. It's never been about "the smallest members of our human family" or whatever the buzzwords are, it's about making sure those slutty women who go and have sex "pay the price." Witness their opposition to andy kind of birth control, the HPV vaccine, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure there's some sincere members of their groups, but the leaders are all hypocritcial lying demagouges.