Friday, August 26, 2005
Pat Robertson, Stem Cells, Hugo Chavez: The Moral Disconnect
A Jewish victim undergoing experiments would not have consented to such experiments whether they were beneficial and conducted humanely or not, especially if such experiments ended in death.
Similarly, a human being in the embryonic stage does not wish to be destroyed in the name of societal benefits. Both the life of the Jew and the embryo are devalued, and a similarity can certainly be made between the experimenters, for both attribute no value to their victims, regardless of their intentions.
And, it's not just Mr. Messenger. Jerry Falwell is on record as equating stem cell research with the crimes of the Nazis. James Dobson and Pat Robertson, likewise, see stem cell research as murder.
"Before long, we'll be harvesting body parts from fully formed people. Once you begin this concept of utilitarian use of cells, then everything is up for grabs," says Pat Robertson.
When will Christian fundamentalists, the Pat Robertsons of this world, grant living, breathing human beings like Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela, the same right to life they demand for a clump of cells?
These Old Testament prophets are always lecturing the rest of us about values. Maybe, just maybe it's time for them to shut up and put their own houses in order. There is a moral disconnect of cosmic proportions in a man, a church, or a faith that equates stem cell research with murder, yet calls publicly for the murder of another human being.
