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Monday, July 24, 2006

OUR MORAL OBLIGATION TO PROTECT INNOCENT LIFE

In Sunday's Houston Chronicle a political cartoon depicted a fertilized human ova with a tiny fetus inside it labeled "potential", apparently in support of Bush's veto on using frozen embryos for stem cell research. Right-to-lifers like to burble about these embryos being "adopted" and implanted to give infertile couples a baby they call "snowflakes". To prove their point they happily show photos of a little over a hundred snowflakes, ignoring the fact that some 400,000 frozen embryos have been abandoned by their owners and will never be adopted.

Many people have questioned Bush's vows to protect "innocent life" of fertilized eggs, but allows babies and children already born perish or suffer disabilities for lack of the medical help they could get from stem cell research. Others question his unconcern for the thousands of children and babies killed in war, not to mention the many thousands of adults slaughtered, or the unknown numbers of babies born with horrific deformities from radiation poisoning of their parents drom DUs. He doesn't seem to be concerned for the babies killed and maimed in his wars. NOR FOR OUR MILITARY!

Thanks to Tina at Fuzzy and Blue for this striking post. Check out her links in the post.
When Children Are Bombed in the Name of Freedom, Who Exactly is Freed?
http://fuzzyandblue.blogspot.com/2006/07/when-children-are-bombed-in-name-of.html

US Domestic Policy versus Foreign Policy; veto stem cell bill, called "taking innocent life".
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14132.htm

posted by Anonymous @ 7/24/2006 05:41:00 AM  

8 Comments:

  • At Monday, July 24, 2006 1:18:00 PM , Blogger Jenn said...

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  • At Monday, July 24, 2006 1:29:00 PM , Blogger Jenn said...

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  • At Monday, July 24, 2006 2:13:00 PM , Blogger Jenn said...

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  • At Monday, July 24, 2006 2:52:00 PM , Blogger Granny said...

    Hi Emma. I answered you in email. I hadn't seen this post because blogger has been erratic.

    Worried American may have her own take on this.

     

  • At Monday, July 24, 2006 8:29:00 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

    Hmmmm. If you believe BushCo's propaganda about starting a war with Iraq for the purpose of saving lives, humanitarianism, ending sanctions - that the US imposed in the first place, I have a wonderful deal for you to purchase some ocean front property in Arizona.

    Sure, fertilized eggs are living cells. So are ova and sperm. So are bacteria and viruses. Including the ebola and AIDs virus. Shall we weep over their destruction? Tell me, how do you know they don't have a quality of life? That they aren't sentient souls? How do you weigh and measure a "soul"?

    We once thought animals were mindless brutes with out reason or emotion, but animal behaviorists have now determined that they do possess these qualities. And prove to me that they don't have souls. Because the Bible doesn't mention it? The Bible doesn't mention a LOT of things that we accept as reality.

    So what do we do with all these 400,000 to 500,000 frozen eggs? Keep them frozen for all eternity until the end of time? If the businesses who maintain these labs allow the eggs to defrost or otherwise dispose of them, do we prosecute them for murder? Do we file criminal charges against the "parents" of these eggs for child abandonment or child neglect?

    In order for these so-called "potential humans" to become humans, they must be implanted in a womb. Otherwise they can never "become". So do we pass a law forcing women to volunteer their wombs so these eggs can "become" and realize their "potential"?

    And meanwhile, as we argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, already born babies and children who have "become" humans suffer and die. I'm sorry but I could never wax emotional about a microscopic cluster of cells when, during my career as a nurse,I was dealing with real, fully developed humans who had already become but suffered and died for lack of medical advances - some of which could be developed through stem cell research.

    You most assuredly have the right to your opinion, as do I, but I refuse to argue any more about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, which, to me, is the thinking patterns of those who argue the "humanity" of frozen eggs. I've seen too much suffering and handicaps of real babies and children and I FULLY SUPPORT the medical means to give them a meaningful life - which frozen eggs do not and never will have. Oh yes, except for a handful of "snowflakes. What about the other half million or so?

    You came over here from Granny's other blog, so you are aware of her beautiful, intelligent,darling, precious child who is handicapped, a condition that has the potential to be alleviated through stem cell research . Her and hundreds of thousands like her, or in worse conditions. Choosing between the sanctity of her life or the life of a cell cluster, I choose her.

    I have a severely handicapped grand child who IS human. For over 20 years I have watched her lack of a meaningful life, walked the floor with her as she shrieked in agony for reasons we could not know and could not relieve. I have wept with her mother, and other family members who love her, in grief and despair and a terrible pity, a frustration you cannot imagine because medical science could do no more to help her. I would gladly sacrifice a half million, a billion, a trillion frozen eggs if I could see her
    pain relieved, to see her have some sort of meaningful quality of life.

    Therefore, debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, or if God could create a rock so heavy even He could not lift, or any other such convoluted thinking holds no interest for me. AND PUHLEEZE DO NOT QUOTE TO ME THE SCRIPTURE WHERE GOD KNEW US IN THE WOMB - WHEN WE WERE EGGS OR A DEVELOPED FETUS?????? I daresay I know the Holy Scriptures just as well as you do and I DO NOT accept the fundie interpretations and beliefs they posit, just as I do not accept Fred Phelps' interpretations of the scriptures he can quote so eloquently.

     

  • At Monday, July 24, 2006 8:39:00 PM , Blogger Chip said...

    There's a simple question to make the issues at stake clear here.

    Let's say an IVF clinic is burning. You have a choice: Save a vial that contains 100 blastocysts, or save one 2 year old child. Which do you save?

    I have yet to hear anyone actually admit they would save the blastocysts rather than the actual human being.

    The answer, I believe, is thus quite clear. And we thus also see that a blastocyst is not a human being.

     

  • At Tuesday, July 25, 2006 12:48:00 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Good answer Chip. I'm stunned by this debate. A fight over whether or not to use these things that are being tossed away anyhow. I'm sick to death of the whole adoption argument for abortion/stem cells, what have you. Who ARE these people who would be doing the adopting? If they're out there, why do we have so many children who are waiting for parents in this country? (or is this more of a white children vs. children of color issue than the right would have us think?) If adoption is the answer, then prove to me that adoption is already working to take care of kids who are alive and well in the universe as of today. Then you can start arguing to save embryos.

    But no. We've got too many people who are screaming to save the unborn or stem cells and then could care less about helping to take care of them once they become actual people.

     

  • At Tuesday, July 25, 2006 7:59:00 PM , Blogger Jenn said...

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