Jim Austin

His previous columns are archived HERE.

JIM AUSTIN

Scopes must be spinning in his grave

Have you ever seen anyone die of Parkinson's disease?

I watched my Grandfather deteriorate over the course of a few years. He steadily lost motor function until he could barely take a step, had to be fed due to uncontrollable tremors, and, finally, mercifully died.

Lou Gehrig's disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). is another cruel debilitating scourge in which muscles slowly dissolve, leaving an active mind surrounded by a useless husk. People diagnosed with ALS usually die after 18 months, although some have lived years on a ventilator.

Now, thanks to the Luddites in the House of Representatives, the present generation and possibly future ones will have to suffer and die in pain or live with monstrously impaired life function. 265 out of 427 of our elected officials have closed the door on embryonic cloning in order to harvest stem cells.

Scientists have determined that stem cell research could lead to cures for ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, and a host of other dreaded illnesses.

Why would these educated men and women feel compelled to condemn a percentage of the population to a lingering death?

It's simple. They have come to the conclusion that a blastocyst, which is an embryonic collection of cells with no brain, no heart, and no nervous system, contains a soul.

God, according to them, would look down upon a petri dish of utterly non-sentient cells, point his omniscient finger, and imbue this unrecognizable cell mass with a soul.

What classic ignorance.

May we not extrapolate from this idiotic conclusion that since a human being may be cloned from a single cell, that every cell in our bodies contains a soul?

This blastocyst is no more human than a toenail paring.

Both, thanks to science, have the potential to be cloned into a human but are they human? The answer is obvious.

"This is about providing moral leadership for a watching world," said Rep F. James Sensenbrenner R-Wis.

Of course, the world always takes our lead on moral issues. Take our stand on landmines, our missile "defense" shield, the Kyoto Accords, the decades-old Cuban embargo, or our enlightened domestic gun-control laws.

Oh, yes -- the world wouldn't have a clue about ethics or morals if it weren't for us.

Well I've got news for you Mr. Sensenbrenner. The rest of the world will race ahead of us; they'll develop these cures for their populations. They'll do it with or without our assistance and technology.

Because of this medieval decision researchers from our scientific community will leave to carry on their work in Germany or England where evolution still occurs. With them will go countless scientific advancements even "legal" ones.

The hypocrisy of this decision just takes your breath away. For years we have merrily caused the deaths of thousands of Iraqi children due to the post Gulf War sanctions we have imposed. Sanctions, incidentally, which have had no effect whatsoever on the power structure of Iraq.

Did we intend for this to happen? Not at all. It is merely an utterly callous disregard for human life that perpetuates the crime. Do you sense any irony here?

There is even a bill pending that would not allow Americans the right to avail themselves of a cure for these diseases if they are developed in Europe by human embryonic research.

Can you imagine contracting ALS and watching yourself die by inches while the cure sits on a shelf in Zurich? I wonder if you would liable to prosecution if you traveled to Switzerland and took the cure?

This corollary will never see the light of day but it clearly reveals the freakish zealotry of which some of these imbeciles are capable.

Predictably the roots of this insane decision are tangled up in religion.

Even our most powerful human institutions, our democracy, and our greatest medical achievements are handcuffed by the babbling of mystics from thousands of years in the past. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, controversy flared in the church over whether images of Jesus and God should be displayed in the church. Early believers thought it was blasphemy for mere mortals to depict the Gods.

The argument today is the same only higher tech.

"Man should not create life, this belongs to the realm of the Lord" is the rubbish espoused by these latter-day medieval hysterics.

In 1925, a small town in Tennessee witnessed what became known as the "Scopes Monkey Trials." The trial involved the prosecution of a biology teacher who taught an alternate theory of creation. He fell afoul of the "Butler Law," a law passed by shortsighted representatives, that said that schools could not teach theories contrary to what is written in the Bible.

Those who passed this law were understandably ignorant given the times. Their society was on the cusp of modernity and great scientific innovations were still in the future.

What's our excuse?