EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH: SHADES OF THE THIRD REICH

 

 

 

Nicholas Jackson
June 28, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

"We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants." -- General Omar Bradley, 1948

It seems like each day we hear about a headline touting Embryonic Stem Cell research as the great medical �savior.� During the 2004 elections we were told that this research would help paralyzed people walk, and cure Parkinson�s, and Alzheimer�s. We regularly are bombarded with news about how great South Korea is. It can be easy to get caught up in all this hype. It is also understandable that we want to do something to prevent these horrible, devastating diseases. However, we must not sell our soul for a mess of pottage as we seek a cure for these diseases.

In Ohio we have been facing a tough battle against state funding against embryonic stem cell research. On Tuesday Jun. 21st, the Ohio House and Senate passed H.B 66, the State Budget Bill which prohibits the use of state �Third Frontier� development funds for embryonic stem cell research which requires the destruction of human embryos and instead focuses the state�s investment in �adult� stem cell research. The bill is set to go to the Governor�s desk where he could still veto the language. The phrase �Third Frontier� may be more appropriately called the Third Reich as Ohio was on the verge of funding the experimentation and destruction of our most vulnerable citizens.

Ohio is certainly not alone in the battle against embryonic stem cell research and experimentation. According to ScienceDaily.com June 24th, Connecticut is the most recent state to provide funding for stem-cell research. Gov. M. Jodi Rell last week signed into law an act that provides $100 million for stem-cell research over the next 10 years. In New Jersey, acting Gov. Richard Codey has proposed funding stem-cell research to the tune of $380 million -- $150 million for a research facility and $230 million in grants. In Massachusetts, the Legislature passed a stem-cell bill, which the governor then vetoed, but lawmakers were able to get enough votes to override. California has 3 Billion dollars in stem-cell funding.

The Associated Press, June 24th reported that, the Wisconsin Assembly approved one of the nation's toughest bans on human cloning, but which Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle has promised to veto.

It can be very difficult to get motivated for a topic which is very technical and couched in euphemistic language and doublespeak. It also can be difficult to decide what issues to focus on. We are often spread thin fighting battles and putting out fires around us. �Disabled woman starved to death.� �Nebraska judge overturns marriage amendment.� �Supreme Court rules Ok to seize property.� Everyday, we are inundated with important cultural news which is impacting our freedoms and liberties and the future of our nation.

Why then is this battle over embryonic stem cell research important? Why must we not shirk from our duty to speak out at this point in American History? If we have not crossed the line in our nation already, we may cross the Rubicon with the experimentation and murder of human subjects (embryos).

When we look at an embryo or a fetus or zygote we must ask the important question, �What is it?� Or more importantly, �Who is it?� Robert George, and Patrick Lee in the New Atlantis article, �Acorns and Embryos,� gives a great understanding of what we know scientifically and biologically about an embryo:

�modern embryology shows the following: (1) The embryo is from the start distinct from any cell of the mother or the father, for it is growing in its own distinct direction and its growth is internally directed to its own survival and maturation. (2) The embryo is human, since it has the genetic constitution and epigenetic primordia characteristic of human beings. (3) Most importantly, the embryo is a complete or whole organism, though immature. From conception onward, the human embryo is fully programmed, and has the active disposition, to develop himself or herself to the next mature stage of a human being. And unless prevented by disease, violence, or a hostile environment, the embryo will actually do so, despite possibly significant variation in its circumstances (i.e., in the mother�s womb). None of the changes that occur to the embryo after fertilization, for as long as he or she survives, generates a new direction of growth. Rather, all of the changes (for example those involving nutrition and environment) either facilitate or retard the internally directed growth of this persisting individual.� Embryonic Stem Cell research in turn kills the embryo in order to extract the stem cells as opposed to adult stem cell research which is taken from umbilical cord blood, or adult bone marrow.

�As to diseases, make a habit of two things-to help, or at least do no harm.� (Hippocrates, The Epidemics) If indeed an embryo is a human being as modern human embryology shows, then it logically follows that experimentation for whatever noble purposes we may have is completely and unequivocally savage, barbaric, and horrific. Imagine the outcry if we decided to then take these embryo�s that were just going to be �discarded,� implanted them in an artificial womb allowed them to grow until birth then used the babies body parts for organ transplants, cornea�s, skin grafts etc. After all, as the biotech industry says, �We were just going to throw them away anyway.�

As surviving Mengele subject Alex Dekel states: �Mengele was a doctor who became mad because of the power he was given. Nobody ever questioned him -- why did this one die? Why did that one perish? The patients did not count. He professed to do what he did in the name of science, but it was a madness on his part.�

Undoubtedly, the evil and atrocities committed in the name of science in Germany reflect what human nature can progress to if left unchecked. We would hope that America would never progress to this abominable blood lust.

Can we see shades of Mengele, as our scientists slide down that slippery slope without ethical or moral constraint?

I was born in 1975. Two years after Roe vs. Wade. I am a survivor of the American Holocaust (abortion). In a few short years I have now seen a disabled woman starved to death on national television, and now my country is beginning to fund experimentation on human subjects, and using them for body-parts. I love America, and I want to fight for America.

However, as long as we have the shedding of innocent blood in our nation, we are under a curse. Now is not the time to remain silent. We must educate ourselves on these issues, and we must never waver in our defense of the unborn, the aged, or infirmed. It will take more than signing an online petition or voting Republican.

Whether it is for the elderly man whose life is devastated with Parkinson�s, or the tiniest most vulnerable of our American citizen�s the human embryo, we must stand. Even If we are but a stepping stone for future generations, we must stand.

We live in a time where evil is waxing great and all we may be able to do is stand, but stand we must. Our posterity and our civilization demand it. Our faith requires it and our Lord deserves it.

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�For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from the Jews from another place, but you and your father�s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.� (Esther 4:13-16)

� 2005 Nicholas Jackson - All Rights Reserved