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 Marie Cocco: Protecting Blastocysts, Forsaking HumansPosted on Jul 24, 2006By Marie Cocco WASHINGTON—If they could shrink themselves to the size of a typeset period, perhaps things would be different. If the children of the Middle East did not have dark and fearful eyes, but instead looked more like those the president cuddled and held aloft for pictures—their golden locks glowing in photographers’ lights as he showed off kids adopted as embryos—then George W. Bush might show the same respect for the lives of desperate civilians in the Middle East that he bestows upon those he invites to the White House. He might demand that the children of the war zone that stretches from Israel through Gaza into Lebanon and Iraq be afforded the human decency he insists must be granted to blastocysts the size of pinpricks. These laboratory creations, tiny clumps of cells—neither fetuses nor babies—have no flesh, no brain, no playthings nor petrified parents who pack them into vans and taxis for a perilous flight toward safety, or toward violent death. For those with a microscopic claim to life, the president demands greater rights than he presently seeks for the living, breathing offspring of the troubled lands he believes can be subdued through force. Of all the shocking hypocrisies of the Bush presidency, none makes the skin crawl so much as the juxtaposition of the president’s veto of bill enabling more stem cell research with the carnage he cynically tolerates in the Middle East. Bush used the first veto of his presidency to reject a rare bipartisan measure that accepts scientific fact for what it is: That is, the medical research that might save or improve the lives of the sick and disabled through the use of stem cells from embryos that would otherwise be discarded as medical waste. As a matter of medical ethics, Bush’s objections are inconsistent. If he truly believes that destroying human blastocysts is “murder’’—as his spokesman Tony Snow says—then he should move to shutter all the nation’s fertility clinics, which after a time destroy unused embryos. Advertisement As Bush was protecting blastocysts at home, the news from the Middle East made clear the depth of that oft-told political lie about respecting all forms of human life. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s surprise trip to Beirut on Monday had all the substance of a U.S. official’s description of the stop: “We are here, we are concerned.’’ The White House continued to reject international pleas to work for a quick cease-fire; the U.S. has speeded up delivery of armaments to Israel. The new buzzword is that the United States seeks a “sustainable’’ cease-fire between Israel and its terrorist tormentors in Hezbollah. The admirable goal is troubled by history: There has been no “sustainable’’ cease-fire since Israel’s founding in 1948. To wait now only ensures more bloodshed, more orphans and more anti-American and anti-Israeli anger. Still, Iraq is the best measure of Bush’s faith in the policy of using force without a diplomatic consensus about its legitimacy. As the White House maneuvered to put the best political face on the stem cell veto, the United Nations gave what amounts to the first officially sanctioned account of civilian deaths in Iraq. Relying on reports from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, it estimates that since the U.S. invasion in 2003 “at least 50,000 persons have been killed violently,’’ with the Baghdad morgue alone receiving 30,204 bodies between 2003 and the middle of this year. “The ministry further indicated that the number of deaths is probably underreported,’’ the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq said. For years, political sages have attempted to explain the unusual mindset of a president who so often seeks to give war a chance. It is that 9/11 “changed everything’’ for Bush. Or that he distrusts the old diplomatic order—that is, the one followed by every contemporary American president, including his father—as a form of appeasement. Or that he is certain that he can change the game in the Middle East. Given the coincidence of right-to-life politics at home alongside the bombs that rain down abroad, it is time to give up this endeavor at comprehension. Because no one can explain the inexplicable. Previous item: Jabari Asim: Who's Showing Black Youth the Path to Responsibility? Next item: Molly Ivins: Run Bill Moyers for President, Seriously Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment
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By morgan -lynn lamberth[griggsy or griggs1947], July 27, 2006 at 3:22 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Saul 20006,knows his religion!And lo,Christinsanity advocates cannibalism- the Eucharist.A rational being would not have a sacrifice at all;Judaism did,but outgrew it.John3/16 is emblamatic of the psychopathic god,not an improvemnet over his nature in the Tanakh at all as some claim . Absurd how some people value free will ,but do not see how that confilcts with the eating of the fruit: now the two could know good and evil for them to embrace the one and avoid the other.Otherwise, they would be robots!So, why not avoid the sadistic tests and have heaven on earth in the first place? If in heaven no sin,why not here? And why would a rational being demand worship in the first place? Low self-esteem drives people to want worship.I do not have a craving for a Sky Pappy as the priests aver:sounds like self-brain washing. Francisco Ayala avers that the religious have a dread of death and a need for Sky Pappy to give them meaning.Wonderful defender of evolution,but poor philosopher: get counseling to overcome the dread and stand on your own two feet and make your own meanings for life. Fr. Griggs rests in his Socratic ignorance and humble naturalism.
Report thisBy Saul2006, July 26, 2006 at 5:15 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Bush is full of crap since what is in a petrii dish has neither brain waves or heart beat and are NOT Human beings.
Report thisHe has no problem sending more soldiers to be killed so that the ones that died in his ill planned incursion in Iraq will not be dishonored.
The fact that those in fertility clinics may be trashed and not used to save lives doesn’t mean anything to the Christo/fascists like Bush.
Also he has not allowed the process only not paying for it with Government funds.
Last and not least he believes in a idiot God that cursed all men because of the act of one and then can only redeem them by “Sacrificing his only Mis begotten son” a human sacrifice like pagans offering virgins. Bush has no problem with Jesus dying to save his pathetic soul or soldiers to save his place in history
By Skeptical, July 26, 2006 at 10:26 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I have always been distrustful of simple explanations for complex problems, but consider that we all understand the human drives that motivate individuals pretty well. Government, business, and religion are all just institutions controlled by individuals working collectively and they are driven by the same underlying human motivations.
There is a logical explanation for George Bush’s actions its just that we are unwilling to accept it at face value, because it veers so far from what has since the inception of this country been considered rational Presidential behavior.
We are involved in what amounts to the 10th Crusade. A religious war between ideologies, Christian, Islamic and Jewish, that is being nourished and encouraged by the selfish interests of American Big business, and marching under cover of the banner of the Christian far right. (Onward Christian soldiers, but this time in the name of KBR, and Raytheon, Boeing/McDonald Douglas, and Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and The Carlyle Group to name but a few!)
Report thisBy morgan -lynn lamberth[griggsy or griggs1947], July 26, 2006 at 8:05 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
While I support Israel’ s fight against Hezbollah , I ,with Blair, think she has gone too far in killing the innocents . One hopes that a multi-national force can intercede there! If only we had a competent administration to deal with the Mid-East!
Report thisBy josephine13, July 26, 2006 at 6:29 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The whole point of her arugement is that Bush either respects human life or he doesn’t, and I don’t believe that he truly does. I am a follower of Jesus Christ’s teachings and for me PEACE is peace, and if one stands for any sort of violence then they do not stand for what Jesus taught. What about “Turn the Other Cheek” or “Love Thy Neighbor?” Aggression has never solved one culture’s hatred for other cultures, it only fuels it! We cannot kill other people’s children to save our own, why can’t leaders get this point???
To use stem cells, which are not even proper embryos, should be allowed, within boundaries and if the parents give consent for their use I see no problem. It is not a violent act, the cells have no feelings, no nervous system, no heartbeat. I would rather be used for research to help others, rather than to be thrown into a garbage, as the majority are. That is a waste of life, if anything is.
Having respect for people who are already here seems to be the first order of business for our culture, or we fail all children everywhere, including those who are waiting to be born right now. What are we teaching them, that killing kids in other countries is okay, if the politics dictate it? How will my own son grow up feeling safe in a world like that???
No, I cannot respect any leader who uses one set of rules for one issue, and a different set of rules for another. That is hypocrisy, plain and simple.
JC
Report thisBy Collin, July 25, 2006 at 4:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Marie,
Playing the old race/Nazi card I see. Contrasting “dark and fearful eyes” up gainst “golden locks”. I like reading *good* material from the other side, but this isn’t.
What can’t be easily explained is your leap from Israel defending itself to protecting human life from unnecessary scientific experimentation.
It’s a non sequitur. That is, unless, of course, one wants Israel out of the way just as one wants *unnecessary* humans out of the way.
Collin
http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com
Report thisBy ocinemod, July 25, 2006 at 2:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The inability to decipher President Bush’s veneration for blastocysts over Iraqi men, women and children seems to come down to the tired refrain, especially in an election year, that “It’s all politics.”
Report thisDoes this president’s God bless government ritual over the lives of His children? Or does he believe ‘their’ God is responsible for their well-being?