Cannibalizing the innocent. (The Last Word).

Now and then something profound surfaces that broadens and deepens our understanding of an issue that seems to have been exhaustively examined and debated. Yet it's amazing how impenetrable certain people are; you'd think that the invention of tiny cameras that photograph a baby developing in the womb, or the arrival of ultra-sound technology that gives the mother an unambiguous image of the person gestating inside of her, would prick the consciences of the abortioneers, end the abortion debate, and send the providers of this hideous practice packing--perhaps to prison.

But such providers, except the occasional defector from their ranks, still callously carry out the wanton destruction of innocent, defenseless human life. It seems the devil himself captains their ship.

I was wondering just how far our society may sink when I saw a television documentary on the History Channel about the Essex, a whaling ship that sank in 1820 after a whale rammed into it. The documentary details the horrible plight of the ship's survivors, who were adrift for months in the Pacific Ocean and who resorted to cannibalism to survive. Captain George Pollard Jr., one of the few who escaped death and was rescued, told his rescuers of the harrowing experience, during which the men wrestled with profound moral dilemmas as they consumed the flesh of those who died.

According to the documentary and other accounts of the Essex tragedy, the situation grew from bad to worse as crew members, adrift in rickety lifeboats and lacking navigational devices and fishing gear, at first ate the flesh of those who died despite their valiant efforts to stay alive, including the sharing of what few rations the crew had. But as their numbers dwindled and rations ran out, the decision was made to, in essence, draw straws to see who would volunteer to be shot to provide "food" for the others.

As the documentary's narrator stated, the survivors had to return to the largely Quaker community on Nantucket and "face the judgment of their own God-fearing community." It was clear that beyond the shock of learning what had happened to the survivors physically, the moral factors weighed very heavily on everyone.

The Essex's plight prompted me to reflect on how quickly our moral compass is spinning these days as we leave our Judeo-Christian moorings and cast ourselves onto the uncertain seas of a godless social order--voluntarily no less. So far, no matter how clear-cut the arguments are against embryonic stem cell research, there are still too few of us who fully comprehend that extracting stem ...