 How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This? is a Dream Machine SiteThe Dream Machine --- The Imagination of the World Wide Web |
| How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This? is a Dream Machine Site The Dream Machine --- The Imagination of the World Wide Web |
| Home | Current Column | Previous Columns | Other Sites | Libertarian | Feedback |
The theologians of today are similarly engaged. The issue? "When does human life begin?" It is crucial...we are informed by said scholars...that we determine this, so that we can apply this wisdom to the issues of abortion, fetal stem cell research and human cloning. In each of these cases, a human fetus may be destroyed in the interest of scientific research.
When the only issue was abortion, things seemed simpler. If you thought that the fetus is "morally equivalent" to a living breathing human being from the instant of conception, then abortion is simply murder. If, like St. Augustine...the archetypal Roman Catholic teacher...you believe that the fetus is not "ensouled" (his word) until the baby "quickens"...that is, until the mother can feel movement...or like Jewish theologians, that life does not appear until the head appears during childbirth, then the decision can be left entirely to a pregnant woman and her doctor...at least, as long as the abortion is performed before the fifth month.
Recently, when Pope John Paul the Second (J2P2)...resembling an animatronic version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame...met with Dubya...ostensibly to help the latter decide whether to allow federal funds for fetal stem cell research...he mumbled the total opposition of himself and the College of Cardinals into Dubya's ear. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church has long maintained that human life actually begins in the eggs and sperm cells that possess the potential of becoming humans. This led them to the absolute prohibition of "artificial" birth control methods, not to mention male masturbation. Female masturbation was not addressed, to the eternal gratitude of abstinent Nuns. The actual laity of the Church have virtually ignored these restrictions, Roman Catholics having the highest rate of birth control usage...not to mention abortion...among ALL religious groups. And, of course, the ban on spanking the monkey was mainly regarded as a howler by both comics and adolescent Catholic boys.
The problem arose when research suggested that stem cells could be useful in the treatment of a number of grave illnesses...diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal injury, etc....which gave pause to politicians and clergyman who might otherwise have sternly objected. Few among us have not or will not be touched by one or more of these problems. As these notorious purveyors of bullshit struggled with what passes for their consciences, an interesting collection of rationalizations emerged, mostly reminiscent of St. Augustine's take. Orrin Hatch, senior senator from Utah and notorious far right devotee, pronounced that fetuses are only human AFTER they have been implanted in the womb. This exempts fetal stem cells grown in a Petri dish and provides cover for conservative legislators, who will soon be asked to vote on this issue.
But then there is cloning. This technique can be used...at least theoretically...to produce identical genetic copies of living humans. But, it could also be used simply to generate fetuses from which stem cells can be "harvested" to be used to regenerate damaged organs of the donor of the DNA. Either one of these approaches produces HUGE outcries from the population. After all, most of us have seen "Frankenstein" or any of a number of horror stories based upon the dangers of "tampering with nature."
Scientists, less sympathetic to emotion as the basis of rational thought and, like us, totally unswayed by the many dire warnings of future catastrophes, are proceeding as if the arguments of the moralists were irrelevant. Historically, they are correct. Throughout all recorded history, political and theological forces have labored to prohibit almost every major advance in science and technology. Indeed, the aforementioned Roman Catholic Church forced Galileo to recant his heresy...that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around...on threat of being put to death burning at the stake.
Why are we unmoved by all the palaver about morality or dire warnings of the end of the world as we know it? It's really quite simple. People can argue forever about exactly when embryonic tissue becomes human but the humanity of the women, who wish to abort their fetuses, or the people, who might be helped by stem cell implantations, is ABSOLUTELY UNDISPUTED! That reduces the question to not whether cell tissue is human, but rather WHO WILL DECIDE? Hey, we're libertarians. We think the people most involved should decide, not decaying churchmen far removed from reality or, even worse, politicians who dine on deception, death and destruction whenever it suits their selfish purposes.
As for "future catastrophes," get real! There WILL BE future catastrophes no matter what Dubya and J2P2 decide.
Note: Since this essay was written, Dubya has made his decision. The chattering class is debating whether this rather limp...totally political...decision adds anything to the common good. Our conclusion is self-evident.
We want ALL scientific research to continue with only those restrictions that would ordinarily be considered as crimes by any civilized society. When and if problems arise, they should be dealt with at that time. Efforts by scientists...much less laymen...to accurately anticipate difficulties have been notoriously unreliable. Let the theologians and politicians debate among themselves and leave the rest of us alone. They have criminalized or made sinful quite enough human behavior, thank you very much.
Besides, in our opinion, the question of when life begins is much deeper than the Wise Men would have us believe. Unless you are a creationist, you realize that every living plant and animal is a survivor...via reproduction...of the first life that appeared on Earth some three billion years ago. So, didn't life...including human life...begin then? Many religions treat ALL life as sacred for precisely this reason...at least all animal life. There are no PERP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants) as of yet, unless the "fruitarians"...who eat only plants that have already fallen from the tree...spoken of in the movie Notting Hill are real.
Furthermore, since our sun has never and will never produce the elements necessary for life, all those arose billions of years ago before our sun was born, in the deaths of short lived blue-white stars, when they ended their lives as supernovas. That material, circulating through insterstellar space, was eventually captured by our sun and condensed into the planetary system upon which life began. Or did it? Evidence recently uncovered suggests that life actually begins in interstellar space, where carbon based compounds are continually being produced because they are soluble in a form of water near absolute zero and are acted upon by starlight for uncounted eons. It's slow, but it does the trick eventually. So, not only are we made of star dust, but that dust evolved into lifelike forms between the stars billions of years before our sun even formed! So life may have begun before the earth was even a twinkle in God's eye. In our humble opinion, that story is far more interesting and exciting than the fairy tales handed down to us by false prophets and charlatans.
But, how many angels CAN sit on the head of a pin?
Talk to you later...
...the best independent ISP in the Twin Cities
The Dream Machine --- Network Services
A newspaper near you.