The Right-wing Child Killers

By DarkSyd || Category - Science 
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In the past, on various Blogs and threads, I've seen comments from those who oppose Embryonic Stem Cell Research which echo the concern that ESCR is unacceptable, because it kills people. These objections usually come from members of the Right to Life (RtL). The RtL is composed of a great many members of the Neo-Christian Right, who routinely post on the issue of ethics as well, often berating anyone who does not share their religion and practice it as they see fit, as morally inferior. The basis being, that without a Divine Overlord setting down what is and is not moral from On High, any system of morality collapses to relativism. And for some reason relativism is a bad thing, compared to their hypothetical absolute code of ethics.

I have a nit-pick with the RtL and the entire Neo-Christian Right in the context of ESCR, and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) ... Well for me it's a nit-pick. Using their own definitions, for them it's a fatal blow if they wish to maintain their political support of anyone in office and still lay claim to the glorious mantle of absolute morality. Not to mention it makes them, most of them anyway, passively or actively complicit child-killers by their own definition ...

In a typical IVF pregnancy, many eggs are harvested from the woman's ovaries, fertilized in a petrii dish (Hence the In Vitro part) and the fertilized ova are then allowed to develop to the blastula stage-roughly 100 cells. This is done to weed out nonviable candidates, because often enough, a good portion of the fertilized eggs do not develop normally. Those that do develop normally are then stored cryogenically, and implanted in the hopeful mother's womb over time, usually several at once. The end result is that thousands of children are born annually to childless couples who would not otherwise exist. Inevitably, there are blastocytes left over from time to time, and that's where the material for Embryonic Stem Cell Research comes from.

If destroying a fertilized human egg is defined as killing people, and any industry in which human embryos are destroyed is in the child-murder business, then IVF Clinics are a miniature death camps. Yet I could find no pending Bills in either house of Congress, or suggested by the White House, even mentioning the idea of banning IVF in the US. And the reason is simple: It's a political loser. 
Any politician who tries it will get the living shit knocked out of him, as picture after picture of cute, photogenic children, and their joyful parents, are presented by his opponents with soundbites scrolling above from little IVF Johnny & Suzie asking "Mr Senator, why do you wish I was dead?" Instead they went after ESCR, which did not save a single human embryo from destruction, in the infamous GOP bait and switch con which is so effective on the dopy, incredulous, Neo-Christian Right.

"Won't Someone Please Think of the Children?"- Mrs Lovejoy on The Simpsons

Absolute-adjective: Complete, entire, total, unadulterated, without exception ... Why haven't our right-wing moral absolutists, who assure us their morality is superior and invariant, come out against IVF with everything they've got? Or if they have, and they define anyone who passively or actively allows this wanton slaughter of innocent babies to continue unabated as accomplices in child-murder, how can they possibly vote for anyone who does not stand against it, and who is doing everything they can to stop it? How does an absolutists position on the most heart wrenching of crimes, the murder of children in their own definition, get an exception if the underlying morality is absolute? My goodness, won't somoene please think of the children? How can they oppose ESCR, which doesn't save a single 'person' and vote accordingly, but turn a blind eye to IVF, and vote for those murdering child-killers? 

The answer is of course, it's convenient for them to ignore it, because their political ideology trumps their morality, thus rendering them a lowly relativist. 
Thus I say unto Ye: Wingers, we welcome you to our relativist ranks, and hope that your past arrogance and inability to reason, will fan the flames of anger at being exposed, and off you'll go on another hysterical twisted rationalization for our amusement.

We have a saying here at NASA: Cheap, fast, safe, pick any two. Do they understand the lesson there? You cannot be a moral absolutist, oppose ESCR on the grounds that it's killing people, and not apply the exact same rationale to IVF. Of course they cook up contrived bullshit to rationalize it; I mean we are after all talking about people who believe they have a personal relationship with a magic invisible sky wizard, but of course they understand how hopelessly screwed they are. It is excruciatingly simple, and they're hung out to dry on it.

Without IVF, there are no embryos for ESCR!. Blaming the destruction of embryos on ESCR, is exactly like blaming the destruction of trees on a kid who takes a chunk of wood out of the scrap pile at a construction site, before the dump truck comes along and hauls it off. 
IVF Clinics are where human blastocytes come from which are used in research such as ESCR. They either go down the toilet, or they make new stem cells lines, (Or they go to some other kind of research). And thousands go down the toilet, because far too many are produced from IVF for ESCR to ever use. 



When President Bush banned Federal Funds for ESCR lines in 2001, it did not save one, single, human embryo. Not one. It was a ruse, a ploy, and you bought it Mr. & Mrs. Neo-Christian, hook line, and sinker. 

Go ahead, theists absolutists, try and cook up some convoluted nonsense for why you can vote for those who turn a blind eye to thousands of child murders every year. It will be entertaining for us to watch you wallow around in your own mess. It's the kind of hysterical antics from the religious right that makes us chuckle (I can just hear some arm chair philosopher make some kind of twisted pitch that you can apply absolute morality relatively, and still be right the Lord-eh. Because it says so in this here verse if you read it right ... ). 

Laughter and ridicule is what you'll get. And that is actually being good natured about it: Considering that this arbitrary moral lunacy over ESCR Vs IVF, could well be stifling the most important field of medical research, since the discovery of penicillin.

Posted by DarkSyd at February 3, 2005 04:16 AM

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» The truth about Stem Cell Research from Fab's Musings
Excellent post on Stem Cell Research, and above all, why the right's objection to it is pure politics, and not a moral stand. The paragraph below is a good summary: The Right-wing Child Killers: Without IVF, there are no embryos for ESCR!. Blaming the de [Read More] 

Tracked on February 4, 2005 03:05 PM

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