Medical Cannibalism.(stem cell research and ethics)(Brief Article)

The quotes you are about to read are true. The circumstances have been changed in order to illustrate the fatally flawed moral reasoning behind President Bush's unconstitutional decision to subsidize experimentation on existing "lines" of stem cells extracted from human embryos:

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 9,2003: President George W. Bush announced today that he would allow federal funding for medical experiments using organs and tissues "harvested" from executed Chinese prisoners. In a live address to the nation, the President underscored the fact that he had invested four months of anguished reflection and prayer into the effort to reach this decision.

One key consideration, the President observed, was the fact that since the bodies of the executed prisoners are "going to be destroyed anyway," the organs that have been extracted from them should "be used for a greater good, for research that has the potential to save and improve other lives...." He also emphasized that the subsidies would be limited to the existing stock of "harvested" organs, "where the life and death decision has already been made." Because this medical research "offers both great promise and great peril," said Mr. Bush, "I have decided we must proceed with great care."

Referring to media reports that Red Chinese authorities had imprisoned some people "solely to experiment upon them," the President declared: "This is deeply troubling, and a warning sign that should prompt all of us to think through these issues very carefully.... We recoil at the idea of growing human beings for spare body parts, or creating life for our convenience."

One spokesman for the National Council of Catholic Bishops denounced the President's decision: "For the government to allow funding for this experiment makes the government complicit in what we consider to be wrongdoing." However, a spokesman for the United Methodist Church -- the President's denomination -- offered qualified approval for the decision, noting that "if you're going to do this research with federal funding, he narrowed it as much as he could." Similar ambivalent approval was given by Focus on the Family, a major "Christian Right" organization. "From our perspective he didn't call for federal funds to be expended to take human life," commented Focus on the Family President Dr. James Dobson. Although the group remains opposed to the use of organs harvested from Chinese prisoners, those who would be affected by the President's decision "are now gone," continued Dr. Dobson. Meanwhile, the harvested organs "are there and I think we can live with that."

None of the people mentioned in this fictional example support the harvesting of organs from Chinese prisoners. Our descent ...