Medieval Irrationality

In a last-minute blitz by superstitious fundamentalists, the stem cell bond issue was defeated yesterday in the New Jersey elections. The assault came from two fronts. The first, which I can understand, feels that it was not a good use of limited state resources. Indeed, the Garden State does have considerable debt and $450 million is quite a lot of money. My opinion, however, is that it is an unusually wise use of funds that fills a gap that the federal government has created. High quality jobs could have been created and our reputation bettered by such an investment.

The other front against the initiative came from the backwards-looking Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups. They played on voters' fears of cloning and misunderstanding of stem cell research. First of all, human cloning is, and would have remained, illegal. Secondly, stem cell research does not involve the creation of a person who will be destroyed for the sake of research. A zygote is not a person. A zygote is as much as person as a single cell from my body is a person. A zygote is not a potential person, because there is no ability for every zygote in existence to come to term as a new person. Most naturally-derived zygotes spontaneously abort. Most artificially-created zygotes (form invitro fertilization) do not become people because it is a difficult task.

Claiming that a zygote is a potential person and deserves all the rights of a person presents some very interesting ethical dilemmas. If every potential person deserves the same rights as every current person, I would be an accessory to murder by allowing IVF to continue. I would be an accessory to murder by not inseminating every woman I met on the street... "Hey, you have a potential human life inside of you, all it needs is a little kick start!"

Ok, my tirade is over. In other news, the White House mocked attempts to bring articles of impeachment against Cheney. Also, how can Bush still have any credibility left? He's vetoing plans to bring health care to sick children. Plans that have been paid for. It really sounds like a caricature of a conservative robber-barron from the 19th century. I thought the claims that we live in a right-wing fundamentalist state were overstated. I wonder what will happen in 08.