Monday, June 07, 2004
I just don't understand this
A Bush spokesperson on stem cell research:
"The president remains committed to exploring the promise of stem cell research but at the same time continues to believe strongly that we should not cross a fundamental moral line by funding or encouraging the destruction of human embryos," Lisaius said.
"The president does not believe that life should be created for the sole purpose of destroying it. He does believe we can explore the promise and potential of stem cell research using the existing lines of stem cells."
Okay, lots and lots of VERY smart people disagree with me on this, but I consider obssessing about a handful of undifferentiated fetal cells as akin to forcing auto insurance companies to pay out for the destruction of a steel mine due to the "destroyed potential" of all those cars which couldn't be made. Ban partial birth abortion, heck, ban it all the way back to 6 weeks after conception, but let's make a middle ground between this "moral line" which states that a few day old "fetus" is as important a 6 month, or 3 month, or even 6 week old fetus.
As this site explains...
The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst.
Yes, that human embryo won't turn into a cow, but one would be hard pressed to call it a human being under even the most loose of definitions.
A Bush spokesperson on stem cell research:
"The president remains committed to exploring the promise of stem cell research but at the same time continues to believe strongly that we should not cross a fundamental moral line by funding or encouraging the destruction of human embryos," Lisaius said.
"The president does not believe that life should be created for the sole purpose of destroying it. He does believe we can explore the promise and potential of stem cell research using the existing lines of stem cells."
Okay, lots and lots of VERY smart people disagree with me on this, but I consider obssessing about a handful of undifferentiated fetal cells as akin to forcing auto insurance companies to pay out for the destruction of a steel mine due to the "destroyed potential" of all those cars which couldn't be made. Ban partial birth abortion, heck, ban it all the way back to 6 weeks after conception, but let's make a middle ground between this "moral line" which states that a few day old "fetus" is as important a 6 month, or 3 month, or even 6 week old fetus.
As this site explains...
The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst.
Yes, that human embryo won't turn into a cow, but one would be hard pressed to call it a human being under even the most loose of definitions.
Ireland and pulling up the ladder behind you
Ireland will be voting on a referendum this Thursday which will tighten citizenship rules. Previously, anyone born in Ireland had the automatic right to Irish citizenship, which is NOT unusually permissive. The Irish, though, are feeling a bit weird now that net emigration has turned to net immigration. Fianna Fail (the current ruling party) has decided to bolster its flagging support by pushing through some chest-thumping irish nationalist demagoguery (oddly enough, Sinn Fein of IRA fame does NOT back the change; go figure).
A recent Limerick Post articlde mentioned that pro-referendum proponents have used a certain rich Chinese national who flew to Ireland to have their baby and used that child's Irish citizenship to acquire residency rights in England. Apparently, rich chinese immigrants are a BIG PROBLEM in Ireland, just as they are a BIG PROBLEM in the United States (yes, that is sarcasm). Must stop all those RICH CHINESE from FLOODING our borders with babies.
Somewhere in the distant sands of time, my family went to the United States from Ireland. Had any of them been pregnant, would Irish proponents of the current changes think it a wonderful idea if my great, great grandfather had been denied citizenship on similar grounds?
Voltaire talked about the noble savage, and he was half right. There's a lot to be said for societies that don't tie themselves up in the layers of bureaucracy that we seem to think is acceptable in modern times.
Ireland needs to remember that it benefited tremendously from foreign countries keeping the doors open to irish immigrants. Allowing children born in Ireland to have citizenship is NOT a tremendously large hole in citizenship law. Most can't afford to dash to Ireland to give birth.
Ireland will be voting on a referendum this Thursday which will tighten citizenship rules. Previously, anyone born in Ireland had the automatic right to Irish citizenship, which is NOT unusually permissive. The Irish, though, are feeling a bit weird now that net emigration has turned to net immigration. Fianna Fail (the current ruling party) has decided to bolster its flagging support by pushing through some chest-thumping irish nationalist demagoguery (oddly enough, Sinn Fein of IRA fame does NOT back the change; go figure).
A recent Limerick Post articlde mentioned that pro-referendum proponents have used a certain rich Chinese national who flew to Ireland to have their baby and used that child's Irish citizenship to acquire residency rights in England. Apparently, rich chinese immigrants are a BIG PROBLEM in Ireland, just as they are a BIG PROBLEM in the United States (yes, that is sarcasm). Must stop all those RICH CHINESE from FLOODING our borders with babies.
Somewhere in the distant sands of time, my family went to the United States from Ireland. Had any of them been pregnant, would Irish proponents of the current changes think it a wonderful idea if my great, great grandfather had been denied citizenship on similar grounds?
Voltaire talked about the noble savage, and he was half right. There's a lot to be said for societies that don't tie themselves up in the layers of bureaucracy that we seem to think is acceptable in modern times.
Ireland needs to remember that it benefited tremendously from foreign countries keeping the doors open to irish immigrants. Allowing children born in Ireland to have citizenship is NOT a tremendously large hole in citizenship law. Most can't afford to dash to Ireland to give birth.
