Sometimes the most potent argument against an opponent comes from someone who would normally be seen as their ally. This article by Charles Krauthammer is one of those. Why is it so important? When you can have this:
I am not religious. I do not believe that personhood is conferred upon conception.
in the same article as this:
How anyone as sophisticated as Obama can believe this within living memory of Mengele and Tuskegee and the fake (and coercive) South Korean stem cell research is hard to fathom.
you find Obama with a problem. Now, to be fair, here’s the full context of those two quotes:
I am not religious. I do not believe that personhood is conferred upon conception. But I also do not believe that a human embryo is the moral equivalent of a hangnail and deserves no more respect than an appendix. Moreover, given the protean power of embryonic manipulation, the temptation it presents to science, and the well-recorded human propensity for evil even in the pursuit of good, lines must be drawn. I suggested the bright line prohibiting the deliberate creation of human embryos solely for the instrumental purpose of research — a clear violation of the categorical imperative not to make a human life (even if only a potential human life) a means rather than an end.
On this, Obama has nothing to say. He leaves it entirely to the scientists. This is more than moral abdication. It is acquiescence to the mystique of “science” and its inherent moral benevolence. How anyone as sophisticated as Obama can believe this within living memory of Mengele and Tuskegee and the fake (and coercive) South Korean stem cell research is hard to fathom.
Wait, that’s not much better for those who supported Obama’s move, is it? Well, that’s because as you draw the lens back further the picture gets continually more bleak for those who want unfettered federal funding for the purposes of “research” which has at its heart the murder of millions of babies. Perhaps the worst part of this whole issue is that this presidency has just begun, and I somehow doubt the next three-plus years will find us doubling back on these decisions. We. Must. Pray.
