Quote of the Week

"Biotechnology is one of a suite of new intimate technologies which are well on the way to empowering people to enhance themselves and their progeny by giving them stronger bodies, longer and healthier lives, and smarter brains. Certainly technologies dealing with birth, death, and the meaning and purpose of life need protection from meddling by others who, however democratically, would force their visions of the good on the rest of us."

--Ronald Bailey in Reason Magazine


"So let's say baby Sophie has a state-of-the-art gene job; her parents paid for the proteins discovered by say, 2005 that, on average, yielded 10 extra IQ points. By the time Sophie is five, though, scientists will doubtless have discovered ten more genes linked to intelligence. Now anyone with a platinum card can get 20 IQ points, not to mention a memory boost and a permanent wrinkle-free brow. So by the time Sophie is twenty-five and in the job market, she's already more or less obsolete - the kids coming out of college just plain have better hardware.

The vision of one's child as a nearly useless copy of Windows 95 should make parents fight like hell to make sure we never get started down this path. But the vision gets lost easily in the gushing excitement about "improving" the opportunities for our kids."

--Bill McKibben, environmentalist in his book Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age

“My husband and I stared at our daughter for that first year. She was worth every cent. Better than a new car, or a kitchen reno.”

--Megan Simpson on using IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis to ensure she had a girl


“It’s high-tech eugenics. If you’re going through the trouble and expense to select a child of a certain sex, you’re encouraging gender stereotypes that are damaging to women and girls. …What if you get a girl who wants to play basketball? You can’t send her back.”

-- Marcy Darnovsky, director of the Center for Genetics and Society

"There were 1,942 recorded incidents of disability hate crime in England and Wales in 2011, an increase of more than 25% on the total for 2010 and the highest since this data was first recorded.... Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows the number of recorded incidents grew by 60% between 2009 and 2011."
--The Guardian

"Advocating for abortion for unborn children with various diseases and disabilities in order to “spare them a life of suffering” suggests that one must be perfect in mind and body in order to have a fulfilling life, which sends a message to those of us poor fools living with disabilities outside the womb that you do not think that our lives are worth living."
--Chelsea Zimmerman, Reflections of a Paralytic

Then:

"The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject, and indeed at any price, and yet takes the life of a hundred thousand healthy children in consequence of birth control or through abortions, in order subsequently to breed a race of degenerates burdened with illnesses."

-- Adolf Hilter, praising the Spartan practice of disposing of any weak or deformed babies

Now:

"She did a disservice to every woman in America. She knew from the first month of pregnancy that kid was going to be Down's Syndrome. It's brain dead. A virtual vegetable. She carries it to all these different political events against abortion, she did it just because she didn't want to say she'd had an abortion. How long is it going to live? Another 12, 15 years? Doesn't even know it's in this world. So what kind of compassionate conservative is she?"

-- Larry Flynt, pornographer, on Sarah Palin's son Trig who has Down Syndrome

Timeless:

"Some people misunderstand evil and believe it will relent, and because their misplaced hope inspires dark hearts to dream darker dreams, they are the fathers and mothers of all wars. Evil does not relent; it must be defeated. And even when defeated, uprooted, and purified by fire, evil leaves behind a seed that will one day germinate and, in blooming, again be misunderstood."

-- Odd Thomas in Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

Years ago I used to juxtapose two quotes that I felt represented the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death on an issue nearly every week.  I think I might bring that back starting with these.  But because my readers are so smart and don't need me to tell them which is which, I will just call them Culture Quotes:

"The connection between marriage and parenthood is not a vestige—it is a thriving expectation that those who get married will at least consider pursuing parenthood. Marriage is a celebration of two people’s union and the possibility of parenthood. And gay marriage entails not just social approval of gay love, but also social approval of the possibility of gay parenthood.... Because of this, many gay married couples that want to become parents will opt to use ART.... Donor-conception, unlike adoption, is a market where new humans are created to fulfill the demands of the adults that want them. “Commercially conceived” persons are deliberately denied a relationship with one or both of our biological parents. The tragic, primal wound ubiquitous in adoption literature is woven into every commercially conceived person’s life story."

--Alana S. Newman, donor-conceived adult and founder of The Anonymous Us Project—an anonymous story collective for people involved with Artificial Reproductive Technologies (ART)

"The criminalisation of sperm and egg donation has absolutely nothing to do with the protection of the embryo and is based on a restrictive model of the family which no longer applies in today's world. [Malta Gay Rights Movement] reiterates that it is not the role of the State to determine who can or cannot become a parent and the introduction of this Act would constitute an unjustified intrusion in the private lives of individuals.  It is truly shameful that LGBT persons will be forced to access reproductive health services in other countries at their own expense while subsidising the health services available to their heterosexual counterparts with their tax contributions, once again reinforcing the notion of second class citizenship."

--  Gabi Calleja of the Malta Gay Rights Movement on Malta's proposed Embryo Protection Bill that would ban the use of donor egg and sperm in IVF

Culture of Death Quote of the Week

"Initial mammalian cloning experiments, with sheep and other species, have produced many sickly offspring that die quickly. Could it ever be ethical to conduct research that produces sick babies in the hope of figuring out how to make healthy clones? And clones might be treated as inferiors, rendering them unhappy.

Still, human cloning should not be out of the question. In vitro fertilization was once seen as depraved God-playing and is now embraced, even by many of the devoutly religious. Cloning could be a blessing for the infertile, who otherwise could not experience biological parenthood."

--Gregg Easterbrook from Embrace Human Cloning

Culture of Life Quote of the Week

"The biotech agenda has never been about stem cell research. That is only a stage. The ultimate agenda is Brave New World, e.g. genetic engineering, reproductive cloning, post humanism, and anything goes.  This has been hidden for political reasons, but with the hated Bush’s stem cell funding restrictions now defunct, we are beginning to see some truth in advertising."

-- Wesley J. Smith comments on Gregg Easterbrook's Embrace Human Cloning

Culture of Life

“When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters,  I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.”

--Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, Ph.D. stem cell research pioneer in nuclear reprogramming.  New York Times.

(HT: Abort73 blog)

Culture of Death

"A cloned embryo of less than 14 days or perhaps one that hasn't developed a brain is not human, but merely cellular life that can be owned and patented." 

--Michael West, Ph.D., founder of Advanced Cell Technologies and therapeutic cloning advocate. National Journal.

Pope Benedict XVI on using genetic information to discriminate against human life, especially in the case of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis or PGD, where IVF embryos are screened for genetic "defects" and then destroyed if they fail the genetic screening:

"What we must repeat with force is the equal dignity of every human being, for the sole fact of having been brought to life. One's biological, psychological and cultural development and health can never become an element for discrimination."

Culture of Death

Robert Edwards, IVF pioneer and cloning advocate, on using reproductive technologies like IVF and PGD:

"We are entering a world where we have to consider the quality of our children."

The unabashed exaggeration surrounding embryonic stem cell research never ceases to amaze me. Especially when it comes from our elected officials who should know better.

Democratic congresswoman Diana DeGette has written a book called Sex, Science and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason in which I am sure is all the tired rhetoric about how George Bush is ruining the world. (DeGette's daughter was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when she was 4 years old.) It sounds like I am the on hyperbolizing until you read this quote from Rep. DeGette:

"That's why it angers me to think of George W. Bush sitting up there in the White House, deciding that the welfare of a bunch of frozen embryonic cells is somehow more important than the welfare of my child -- or any child for that matter," DeGette writes. "There are thousands and thousands of parents just like me, whose kids have diabetes or cancer or muscular dystrophy, who feel the same way; and, there are thousands and thousands of adult children whose parents have Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or a stroke. Together we're counting on those embryos to see us through and take some of that weight off our shoulders and set our world right once again."

Oh boy where do I start:

1. The "cells" of note here are not just "cells." They are EMBRYOS. Complete human organisms that no one thinks are MORE inmportant than DeGette's daughter. They need to be valued the SAME as all human organisms no matter what stage of development. Which means we do not rip them open while they are still alive and harvest the parts we are interested in.

2. Adult stem cells are already producing the insulin her daughter needs. There are no human trials even underway with embryonic stem cells for diabetes.

3. So if DeGette is "counting on those embryos to see us through" she is going to be waiting a VERY long time. Possibly decades.

4. The fact that she thinks that ripping open frozen human embryos is going to "set our world right once again" just shows that she is the one who needs a dose of reason. Reality check please.

Biotechnology is arguably more insidious than abortion. Abortions take
place one at a time and generally as a response to an accident, lapse
or nasty surprise. Their gruesomeness actually limits their prevalence
by arousing revulsion and political opposition. Conventional stem-cell
harvesting is quieter but bolder. It’s deliberate and industrial, not
accidental and personal. In combination with cloning, it entails the
mass production, exploitation and destruction of human embryos. Yet its
victims don’t look human. You can’t protest outside a fertility clinic
waving a picture of a blastocyst. You have to explain what it is and
why people should care about it.

Taken from CathNews.com:

“If this human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least
a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough”.

Dr. James Thomson, embryonic stem cell pioneer

Forgive me for quoting myself, but it goes so well with the following Culture of Death Quote:

"Scientists are scientists, not philosophers, not ethicists, and certainly not lawmakers.  To suggest that we should leave the decision about what is moral scientific research up to the scientists is like suggesting we should leave what constitutes ethical business practices up to corporate CEOs."

--Rebecca Taylor

From a Q&A on interspecies cloning:

"The hobbling by politicians of any scientific research that has the promise of being able to save many lives is clearly a mistake....  Politicians are the worst people to rule on what kind of research should be allowed or prohibited....  Any oversight of questionable research should be done by other scientists in the field who don't have any political or monetary incentive to come to a specific conclusion. Knee-jerk reactions against new types of research simply because of political biases, whims or pretense of religious morality, or claiming a violation of human dignity — whatever that means — should have no influence in the matter."

--Jerry Parks, Member Humanist Assn.of Orange County

"When a child is begotten through the conjugal act, he comes to be as a gift from God, a gift crowning the spouse's mutual gift of themsleves to each other.  When a child is 'produced' it comes to be, not as a gift from God, which in truth it is, but as a product of human control."

 --William E. May, from his book Catholic Bioethics

"In 1993, doctors began offering ICSI -- intracytoplasmic sperm injection -- to couples who had a low sperm count.  Even though the wife didn't need it, she was put through all the rigors of IVF so that her eggs could be harvested and directly injected in vitro with her husband's sperm....

For the doctors in the lab, the procedure itself was thrilling.  They took a thin needle and shot the sperm into the egg.  It was like sex under the microscope."

--Lori B. Andrews, reproductive rights lawyer from her book The Clone Age

"In the 20th century, we failed to stifle at birth the totalitarian concepts which created Nazism and Communism though we knew all along that both were morally evil--because decent men and women did not speak out in time.... Are we going to make the same mistake with this new infant monster [biotechnology] in our midst, still puny as yet but pliable, all too soon, to grow gigantic and overwhelm us?"

--Paul Johnson, The Spectator

"I don't think cloning is demeaning to human nature, to attempt to limit human knowledge is demeaning. It's not legitimate to try to stop cloning.  What nonsense, what utter nonsense, to think that we can hold up our hands and say 'Stop.'  Human cloning will take place and it will take place in my lifetime.  I don't fear it at all.  I welcome it."

-- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)

"The great challenge to mankind today is not only how to create but to know when to stop creating.  And, when we celebrate a Sabbath to remind ourselves that God initially created this world, we celebrate not his creation in the six days.  We celebrate that he knew when to stop." 

--Lord Emmanuel Jacobovitz, former Chief Rabbi of Britian

From a CNN article written by Matthew Knight on Dolly the sheep:

"Perhaps far into the future, groups of school children will file past the stuffed remains of an unremarkable sheep at the National Museum of Scotland, unaware that they are the direct beneficiaries of the science that started with Dolly. Scientists may well be on course to create their own immaculate conception."

"There is a growing conviction that research is subject only to the laws that it chooses for itself and that it is limited only by its own possibilities. This is the case, for example, in attempts to legitimise human cloning for supposedly therapeutic ends."

--Pope Benedict the XVI

"Every human being should have not only that right but the passionate duty to reach out with all his or her strength to help others, even if it involves such controversial technology as cloning.  If that means playing God, then it is playing God in a good way." 

--Michael West, Ph.D., Advanced Cell Technologies; therapeutic cloning advocate

From his great piece on living with a child with Down's Syndrome:

"The never-disputed terribleness of Down’s syndrome is used as one of the great justifications for abortion: abortion has to exist so that we don’t people the world with monsters. I am not here to talk about abortion — but I am here to tell you that Down’s syndrome is not an insupportable horror for either the sufferer or the parents. I’ll go further: human beings are not better off without Down’s syndrome."

--Simon Barnes, sports writer

From her book The Clone Age:

"A woman I know was told by her obstetrician that her fetus had Down syndrome.  The doctor ordered her to abort, she refused....  Another woman was similarly coerced.  Her doctor told her that her baby would be more like a fish than a human and would only be as smart as a baboon" 

--Lori B. Andrews, reproductive rights lawyer

If you ask me whether I care more about the destruction of a blastocyst, which theoretically has the potential to develop into a conscious human being, or the painful killing of an adult cow in an abattoir which has already reached its full potential, my answer is not in doubt. If I see a terrified cow about to have its throat cut by a Jewish or Muslim slaughterman who insists, purely for religious reasons, that it must be fully conscious when the knife hits, I want to intervene on its behalf. If I see a human blastocyst the size of a pinhead about to be flushed down the drain, do I want to intervene on its behalf? Oh come on, get real.

--Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University

"But since the possibilities of prenatal therapy are today still limited, it not infrequently happens that these techniques are used with a eugenic intention which accepts selective abortion in order to prevent the birth of children affected by various types of anomalies. Such an attitude is shameful and utterly reprehensible, since it presumes to measure the value of a human life only within the parameters of 'normality' and physical well-being, thus opening the way to legitimizing infanticide and euthanasia as well.”

-–Evangelium Vitae, 63