On my last post about politicians insisting on funding ESC research despite the recent advancements in ASC research rendering it virtually unnecessary, Paul commented that: It’s all about the killing. Always was.
That reminded me of a recent column in the Chicago Tribune by John Kass, Abortion at the heart of Stem Cell Research:
Though I can’t begin to explain the science, the politics seem clear, despite the Orwellian twisting of the language over the years, despite the political symbolism and political iconography. It’s clear enough.
It’s about abortion. It has always been about abortion, about the choices we make and how we fight to use or deny human embryos for research — all of it like hands that shape our future culture.
There have been other scientific and funding aspects to the stem-cell debate, but at the retail political level, “stem-cell research” has long been a proxy for abortion rights and for the rights of human life unborn.
So “stem-cell” is code, a slogan, the fact understood by political consultants and their candidates, by the abortion rights groups and the politicians who seek their votes and by those that oppose abortion rights and seek those other votes.
Human embryos don’t vote. Many Americans don’t believe there is life in them at such an early stage. I do. But others don’t.
Yet if left alone in a mother’s womb, nurtured there, surely they’d be born to run and breathe and think and speak, and perhaps grow old enough to vote. And they’d want to survive and they’d express that desire through public policy debates, like this one.
Every creature born wants to live, many at almost any cost, and humans are instilled with the will to continue. If this means taking other human lives to ensure survival, well, hasn’t that question been answered by centuries of human history?
We’ve killed one another by tribe and clan, over hunting and grazing land, with clubs and pointed spears, and killed over water. For the past several thousand years, we’ve killed one another over gold. Now we kill for energy. We kill one another for the power to live. We justify it with words. But the act remains the same.
And for all the years the embryonic stem-cell debate has dragged on, we’ve used words to obscure what we’ve been doing. We abandoned old notions of common morality to adopt a new code born of scientific rationalism:
That it is proper to take human embryos and use the human life going on inside them as a product to perpetuate other, more powerful lives.
Rush Limbaugh has been a shining beacon of truth in the great stem cell debate and has done many of us a favor by publicly going where many fear to tread. When Michael J. Fox came out with that emotionally manipulative television ad last year supporting Claire McCaskill and Amendment 2, Rush didn’t miss a beat. He went after the deception and manipulation behind the ad and, more importantly, the use of the once unifying goal of curing disease for partisan politics as he said: 
Bella earned another million dollars at the box office last weekend and even moved up on the list of top grossing movies from number 17 to 13. 
The scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep 
I love that this movie features a main character with Down syndrome, a disease for which a positive prenatal test result ends in abortion over 90% of the time. Our society seriously underestimates the ability of people with disabilities to live “normal” lives – to have jobs, fall in love, or otherwise chase their dreams. Very often people with serious disabilities are looked upon with pity and many presume that our lives must somehow be less fulfilling or valuable because of our physical limitations. 
Fast forward, almost eight years now, and it turns out I do have a pretty wonderful life. I did make it to my junior prom (pictured here) and have been driving (with more success this time) for a number of years. No kids yet, I still lack the necessary components – a man and a marriage covenant – otherwise I’d be good to go. I still have the love of my family and the ability to love in return. Apart from working for my parents, I do a number of volunteer duties in my parish and my community. I have a great life because I’m a human being, dammit, and I know my life has value!
