WP: Life vs. Life (Stem cells)

[kskiska]

By Richard Cohen

Sometime after the tragic advent of television, someone ruled that no issue could be debated without a photo op. Thus, if some senator introduces a bill about agriculture policy, it is not enough to drop it into the hopper. The senator must stand before a silo, maybe holding a pig, to make the point that the bill about to be introduced is vital to both. In that very spirit, President Bush posed on Tuesday with real-life babies who were produced from frozen embryos that in godless places (Britain, Israel and, soon, California), might have been destroyed for their stem cells. But, look, the president said, these babies were life itself. One of them even cried.

Now envision a different photo op in which another form of life is on display -- people in wheelchairs or using walkers or maybe on gurneys. They are suffering from various diseases or injuries of the nerves or the spinal column or some such thing. Many are in pain. All of them are uncomfortable, and they could be saved, cured, made better through the use of stem cells that would, if you believed in the logic of Bush's photo op, have come at the expense of those very babies across town.

"The use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life, is -- I'm against that," the president told reporters earlier this month. The statement plus the photo op made it all so clear: We have to balance one form of life against another. This was not win-win; this was win-lose or zero-sum or some such stupid expression. No matter. We understand.

Yet, offstage, unphotographed (if such a thing is possible nowadays) a determined sperm is making his way up a fallopian tube. This is the way life begins. It is always the way life begins. Now our determined sperm has hit its mark -- the egg. Voila, as the French say, we have fertilization. This is the life Bush is always talking about. Ain't it wonderful! This is what all those religious conservatives are in such a state over. Life, life itself! But, oops, the fertilized egg does not adhere to the womb. No pregnancy results. This happens all the time, as many couples learn the hard way. Call the fertilized egg what you will. Call it life. But calling it life does not make it so. Other things have to happen. Too often they simply don't.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052600518.html

[DanCa]

1. You know this is where I am

I believe everyone has a right to lobby for or against things that I may or may noy agree with. Some people I know with PD actually voted for chimpy. However I feel that no one has the right to insult me and keep me out of thier church because I know my god wants a cure for my illness and the cure for children, living breathing children who suffer everyday from dibates and hemophilia.

Thats my whole problem with the religious right if your not one hundred percent with them on every issue your scum. It's horrible. Thank you for posting this. I really hate being stuck in the middle of this culture war stuff. They are playing games with my life.
Sorry I had to vent. :)

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I think Richard Cohen said this very well. I couldn't agree more.