January 9, 2003
HAVING OUR CAKE AND EATING IT TOO:
Cloning ban bill reintroduced in Congress (UPI, 1/09/03)Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., Wednesday introduced legislation in the House to impose a ban on all types of human cloning in the United States, while Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback said he plans to introduce similar legislation in the Senate soon. [...]"It would be tragic if this bill passes," said Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., which is developing therapeutic cloning technology as a medical treatment.
"If Congress overreacts and passes this bill, it could be a death sentence for many patients," Lanza told United Press International. "There are over 3,000 Americans who die every die from diseases that could be treated in the future with these new technologies. The medical and scientific community is unanimous in banning reproductive cloning but at the same time the medical and scientific community is also unanimous in its support of therapeutic cloning," Lanza said. [...]
A U.S. ban on cloning will do little to stop people in other countries from using the technology, Lanza added. "This research is going to proceed overseas in other countries regardless of what we do here in the U.S.," he said. "In all likelihood these groups are going to operate overseas anyway."
Mr. Lanza seems to weaken his own case. As he points out, we can preserve human dignity in our own society and then just purchase the products of any medical advances that are made in the nations where the value of human life has been debased, just as we used the Nazi''s hypothermia research. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 9, 2003 11:45 AM
We could, but it would be cynical and immoral.
I go the other way. For example, insulin-
dependent diabetics are are also PETAs cannot
take insulin, since its discovery was the
result of a forbidden experiment -- Minkowski
took out a dog's pancreas out of mere
curiosity to see what would happen.
Anyhow, if you don't practice what you preach,
don't expect much of a congregation.
Harry - poetic justice is not real justice.
Posted by: pj at January 9, 2003 1:37 PMHarry:
Why? It's not as if we can stop them.
Actually Orrin, we don't use the Nazi hypothermia research. Scientists around the world have agreed on two things: 1) it would be immoral to do so, and 2) the actual work was so poorly done (from the standpoint of scientific method) that it is useless, even if one could cast aside the morality.
There have been reviews written about this; I'll look tonight and see if any are available on the web for your readers.
Regards,
Here's one:
http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html
Orrin, morality is not what you prevent other
people from doing, although I realize that is
what your religion teaches you. Morality is
what you do.
A longevity pill made of boiled babies would
need more recommendation than mere
efficaciousness to get me to use it.
Harry:
So whatever you do is therefore moral? Or whatever anyone else does is moral because they decided it is? Yeah, that'll work.