From: The Pro-Life Infonet Weekly >
Reply-To: Steven Ertelt >
Subject: British Government Orders the Slaughter of Innocents
Source: Article by Dr. David Reardon; December 27, 2000
British Government Orders the Slaughter of Innocents
by David C. Reardon, Ph.D.
[Moderator's Note: Dr. Reardon is an author, biomedical ethicist, and
director of the Elliot Institute.]
Destructive experimentation on human embryos, and even well-developed
human fetuses, is now widely practiced in many of the world's most
technologically developed (and spiritually senile) nations.
Until now, most governments have simply turned a blind eye to the
deliberate killing of embryonic human beings.
Until now, the embryonic children created by in vitro fertilization were
created with the intent that at least some would survive to maturity. Each
new life began with at least some chance (about two percent, on average)
that he or she would selected for implantation and survive to birth. It
was only the "excess" or "defective" who were selected to die for the sake
of advancing scientific knowledge about embryonic human life.
But on December 19, 2000, the world slid down another section of the
slippery slope of our own dehumanization. On that day, at the behest of
Prime Minister Tony Blair, the British Parliament passed legislation to
allow the cloning of human beings under the strict provision that ALL of
these cloned human beings MUST be killed.
This law moves the British government away from being a passive observer
of the killing of innocent unborn children into being a direct regulator
of the killings. Under the new law, human lives may be created using
cloning technology only when the creators agree, under threat of the law,
to destroy the embryonic child.
Through this "compromise" legislation, which forbids the carrying to term
of cloned children, the government hopes to clear the path for British
scientists to be at the forefront of research into eugenic human
engineering. In fact, this compromise is a condition that eugenicists gladly embraceat
least for the time being.
These government ordered killings are being disguised as regulations for
"therapeutic cloning." But exactly for whom is this scientific research
"therapeutic?" Not for the cloned human embryo. Not for the donor of the
genes that are cloned. Not for anyone. No, the word "therapeutic" is
simply being attached to this dead-end cloning to suggest that this
research has some imminent medical value.
Furthermore, it is most notable that these experiments will contribute
little or nothing to our understanding of basic biology that could not be
learned equally as well from the use of animal tissues. But, then,
experiments in human cloning are not really about advancing science at
all, though they are being defended under that guise.
The real goal behind the push for human cloning is to further desensitize
the public to the manipulation and destruction of human embryos. This is
an important step in the eugenicists' march toward establishing complete
"quality control" over human procreation. It is another step, in science
and in the law, toward the annihilation of that old Judeo-Christian ethic
which regards all human life as sacred.
In passing its "therapeutic cloning" law, the British Parliament has
clearly rejected the old ethic and is standing squarely on the side of the
eugenicists' "new ethic." According to this new ethic, human life is
simply "complex biological matter" that can be manipulatedand discardedat
will. It is an ethic that inevitably leads to a totalitarian mentality
that seeks to create a utopian "Brave New World" by controlling who is
allowed to be born into the world and how quickly the sick and "unfit" are
targeted to leave the world.
Do not underestimate the historical importance of this event. In clearing
the path for human cloning, the British government has clearly become an
advocate of the new ethic built on the premise of defining ourselves as
unsacred human animals.
Furthermore, in creating the mandate that all human clones shall be used
only for experimental purposes that must end in their destruction, the
British government has established a new precedent for human segregation.
Under British law, genetically engineered human beings do not have the
same rights and protections as other human beings. This will be an
important precedent as eugenicists begin to pursue the recommendations of
Joseph Fletcher, among others, regarding the creation of human-animal
hybrids and brainless organ donors.
G. K. Chesterton, the British wit who was always a thorn in the side of
the early eugenics movement, once quipped: "Morality is like art.
Somewhere you need to draw a line."
Chesterton saw to the heart of the matter. In the last fifty years, in
vitro fertilization, contraception, abortion, mercy killing, managed
health care, and genetic engineering have all blurred the boundaries that
once defined society's understanding of procreation and death. Now, with
the acceptance of "therapeutic cloning," another line defending a sacred
view of human life is being erased. Soon, nothing will stand in the way
of the eugenicists' new ethic.
But there is still hope. The old ethic, the view that life is sacred, is
still held by the vast majority of "normal" folk. It is long past time
for those who believe in the sacredness of life to speak up, to act, and
to vigorously resist the advances of this new ethic.
May God save us all.
The eugenicists won't; they will only save the "best."
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