Charles Krauthammer is not pro life. He is not, as far as I know, religious. He is an MD and a psychiatrist, who became one of America’s most erudite pundits after becoming paraplegic in a swimming accident years ago. This, according to the media, should give him as much moral authority as Michael J. Fox, Mary Tyler Moore, and the late Christopher Reeve. Plus, he is smarter than those three put together.
Here is part of what Krauthammer wrote in this fine column about the political attempt to overturn President Bush’s stem cell funding policy: “You don’t need religion to tremble at the thought of unrestricted embryo research. You simply have to have a healthy respect for the human capacity for doing evil in pursuit of the good. Once we have taken the position of many stem cell advocates that embryos are discardable tissue with no more intrinsic value than a hangnail or an appendix, then all barriers are down. What is to prevent us from producing not just tissues and organs, but human-like organisms for preservation as a source of future body parts on demand?”
Why, nothing at all. The power of human logic virtually compels us to go there.
After extolling the finding of potentially pluripotent stem cells in amniotic fluid, Krauthammer concludes: “It will have turned out that Bush’s unpopular policy held the line, however arbitrary and temporary, against the wanton trampling of the human embryo just long enough for a morally neutral alternative to emerge. And it did force the country to at least ponder the moral cost of turning one potential human being into replacement parts for another. Who will be holding the line next time, when another Faustus promises medical nirvana if he is permitted to transgress just one moral boundary?”
Good question. On the other hand, there is cause for optimism. The latest poll shows that support for expanded funding is hardly overwhelming, 56-41%. And remember, that is with tens of millions in Big Biotech propaganda and a totally in the tank MSM pushing the agenda. A few more big adult stem cell breakthroughs and the home team will be back in the game.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
