Heretical Conservatism: The Right-Wing Has It's Own Version of PETA

- Opposition to federal financing for embryonic stem-cell research

This is another one that I can’t get too worked up over and it’s amazing to me that conservatives still get into such a tizzy over this.

Pro-lifers say that this is the destruction of a human life. Apparently they believe that after two people come together in love and created a new human life, a group of diabolical scientists forcefully remove the child from the mother so that it can be torn apart with the hope that Christopher Reeve might walk again (actually, that would be a pretty impressive trick since he's been dead for over 3 years...but I digress).

Except it’s not...the diabolical scientist part, I mean.

In reality, a scientist takes a drop of baby batter, implants it into an egg, leaves it in a test tube for a few days and takes the product of this effort and does research on it. The embryo has no feelings, no soul, no consciousness. It’s a clump of 50 to 150 cells. And as long as it’s sitting in a petri-dish and NOT a womb, it’s not even a viable clump of 50 to 150 cells.

I won’t argue the merits of whether or not embryonic stem-cell research has any value whatsoever. I barely passed 10th grade biology…I’m certainly not qualified to argue its merits. What I WILL say, though, is that for a group who is so keen on the “culture of life”, it’s odd to me that they won’t even give it a chance.

“All life is sacred to God….even little bitty clumps of cells which have the potential to become a baby.”

You know, I don’t think God thinks in absolutes like that. He’s God. He possesses wisdom and, no doubt a little common sense. And (in my humble opinion) he thinks that we’re being ridiculous for holding a 150 cell clump in higher esteem than millions of people who suffer debilitating and/or life threatening diseases because we have (misguided) moral concerns.

I’ve always found it to be charmingly ironic that the same people who are anti-abortion are most often pro-death penalty. I guess all life is sacred to God UNLESS you’ve committed a horrible crime.

(Lest anyone think I’ve gone totally overboard and turned into a liberal, I’m still pretty much in favor of the death penalty in certain instances, such as sexual predators, people who abuse or murder children and serial killers. And note that these are the crimes that I feel to be most worthy of death. God may see things differently. He didn’t assign a points system when he gave the Ten Commandments….he might find lying to the boss, stealing office supplies or lusting after that hot little auditor on the 4th floor more smite-worthy than shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die. Not likely, but who can say for sure?)

Again, I’m not arguing the merits…embryonic stem cell research may produce absolutely nothing. I’m only saying that the pro-life position on ESCR is as stupid as PETA’s position on animal research...and that’s REALLY damned stupid.

If you think about it, the similarities are striking.

PETA believes that the life of an animal is just as sacred and deserving of protection as a human life (and sometimes more so). Any animal testing, even if it has the potential to save millions of people from debilitating and/or fatal disease is wrong. Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PETA has said, “Even if animal experiments did result in a cure for AIDS, of which there is no chance, I’d be against it on moral grounds."

Ingrid Newkirk is batshit crazy and I defy you to find a single conservative who doesn’t believe the same about her.

But if you substitute “embryo” for “Rover”…