Cryptic Nightmare
19-12-2007, 04:03
If we are enjoined to respect human life, then we must respect that life at every stage, from conception onward. If we do not, then we are basically saying that there is some criterion on which we can declare that some human beings deserve respect, and others do not. But doesn't that violate the principle of equality?
We say that all of us have equal rights that come from the hand of God. And yet we are willing to say that because a babe in the womb is not quite as well developed as we are, we can ignore the rights of that child.
No medical advance, and certainly no material profit, justifies denying the claim to humanity of the embryonic human person. Those who try to justify it are driven from one tortured rationalization to another, none addressing the real issue. Being undeveloped, unconscious, unattractive, small, or unwanted — these are not reasons that we accept in any other context for failing to respect the wholeness of moral worth that every human being has from his Creator.
Why, therefore, should we accept it in regard to embryonic research?
No — we do not have the right to take human life merely because it is unconscious, or because it is undeveloped or damaged, or for any other reason that tempts us to deny the equal dignity of all human persons.
When we start making such invidious distinctions, we destroy the principle of equal rights. We can't claim rights for ourselves if we deny those rights to babes at any stage in their development.
We ourselves don't want to be used as the basis for experiments without regard for our humanity — and neither should they.
The Declaration of Independence says we're all of us created equal. It doesn't make a distinction between whether that creation is published in the womb or in the petri dish. It just says that God's Will determines our dignity, not human action, not human intervention. In the forgetting of this principle, you open the door to a plethora of evils. In the remembering of it, you lay the solid foundation for further human progress — but in dignity and in decency and in honor.
Sounds like he is making an asinine rant. But I could be wrong, I still won't vote for anybody against stem cell research.
We say that all of us have equal rights that come from the hand of God. And yet we are willing to say that because a babe in the womb is not quite as well developed as we are, we can ignore the rights of that child.
No medical advance, and certainly no material profit, justifies denying the claim to humanity of the embryonic human person. Those who try to justify it are driven from one tortured rationalization to another, none addressing the real issue. Being undeveloped, unconscious, unattractive, small, or unwanted — these are not reasons that we accept in any other context for failing to respect the wholeness of moral worth that every human being has from his Creator.
Why, therefore, should we accept it in regard to embryonic research?
No — we do not have the right to take human life merely because it is unconscious, or because it is undeveloped or damaged, or for any other reason that tempts us to deny the equal dignity of all human persons.
When we start making such invidious distinctions, we destroy the principle of equal rights. We can't claim rights for ourselves if we deny those rights to babes at any stage in their development.
We ourselves don't want to be used as the basis for experiments without regard for our humanity — and neither should they.
The Declaration of Independence says we're all of us created equal. It doesn't make a distinction between whether that creation is published in the womb or in the petri dish. It just says that God's Will determines our dignity, not human action, not human intervention. In the forgetting of this principle, you open the door to a plethora of evils. In the remembering of it, you lay the solid foundation for further human progress — but in dignity and in decency and in honor.
Sounds like he is making an asinine rant. But I could be wrong, I still won't vote for anybody against stem cell research.