Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Stem Cell Madness

Tell ya what: When Dobson and his minions can line up adoptive parents for every single unwanted embryo in America, whether in a fertility clinic or a womb, then, maybe, we can talk about banning stem cell research and some abortions. However, the sad, harsh fact remains that there are always going to be more embryos than there are people who want them, and I see nothing wrong with putting the ones in fertility clinics to good use - if the Dobgoblins want to "rescue" some of them via adoption, good for them, but that doesn't magically invalidate either the enormous research value or the unwantedness of the un-adopted embryos.

And as I think about it some more, please, let them start with the fertility clinic embryos, which are not inside a woman's body and therefore not disrupting anyone's life or future. Get caught up on those, then work their way through the women who don't mind carrying a baby to term but balk at taking care of it for whatever reason (like, say, because those very same anti-abortion crusaders have no interest in any kind of government assistance or support to indigent mothers). Once they've got those unwanted embryos taken care of, then they can work on pioneering non-fatal embryo/fetus extraction techniques to replace abortions for women who don't want to be pregnant (age, health, rape/incest, etc.). No-one has to keep a baby or a pregnancy they don't want, no unborn babies die - everybody wins!

So what are y'all pro-lifers waiting for? You should be getting right on that! What's that? You say you don't want to go through another pregnancy? You can't afford to take care of another baby? How interesting...

Update: With a nod to Otter, the fundies should worry about adopting unwanted born children before they start freaking out over the unborn ones.

9 comments:

watertiger said...

I don't think the two should even be linked.

And I think Dobson should be dipped in liquid nitrogen, just for fun.

Eli said...

Well, it's all part of the same effort on the Republican side.

Embryos = babies.

Stem cell research/abortion = murder.

If they can't convince everyone of that (and they can't), then they should be prepared to adopt all the unwanted fertility clinic embryos so there won't be any left for the stem cell researchers, and they should be prepared to adopt all unwanted pregnancies so the mothers don't have to live with them.

But it's never gonna happen - getting pregnant and taking care of babies is for the rubes. I suspect that the percentage of pro-lifers willing to adopt unwanted babies and embryos is roughly proportional to the percentage of pro-war people willing to enlist.

NYMary said...

There ya go, Eli, thinking again...

Even my most fundie students think that if a couple manage to conceive on the first or second try and want to donate their embryos to stem-cell research, they should be allowed to do so.

One guy, a fiercely Catholic PromiseKeeper, said that they'd like to use cells from adult spinal fluid for the same purpose. Problem? Well, they don't FUCKING WORK!!!

oldwhitelady said...

I like that idea.. taking care of unwanted born children, first, before they start worrying about embryos. What a concept. Ok, I'll take the "X" off friend, for now.

AB said...

I agree with watertiger, Dobson should be dipped in liquid nitrogen for the fun of it.

wanda said...

By George (pun intended) you tell em Eli!!
I fully agree with you!
Oh and I rather like watertiger's idea for Dobson as well. Maybe we could toss in Frist, DeLay, Limbaugh, O'Lielly, and Buchannan for good measure.

Eli said...

It seems kinda inhumane to the liquid nitrogen...

scout prime said...

This issue is a problem for the Repugs because the polls just aren't with them. It'll be interesting to see how they get out of that fix.

Eli said...

I think the calculation is that they have to keep stroking their base on this, and that this is too obscure and scientific to really affect how anyone votes.