Tuesday, May 24, 2005

WHY STOP -- ANYWHERE? - Buckley

Buckley writes in his latest op ed, about embyonic stem cell research, that "Practically everybody says that we should not clone. Why not? What's the matter with trying to produce another Marilyn Monroe, or another Vladimir Horowitz? Or, as we perfect the refinements of the trade, another Einstein? One runs the risk -- we'd have to admit this -- of cloning another St. Paul. But when he began to preach, we could inject into him some kind of serum designed to correct antediluvian thought."

He concludes his typically thoughful piece with, "[Embrionic stem cell] research may or may not end cancer, but it will certainly revolutionize, or seek to do so, laws and conventions that set bioethical limits on medical explorations."

Seems likely to me. I just hope the antediluvian mindset (*) Buckley refers to does not prevail. It is the source of the controversy, refusing to recognize, as it does, the link between the "soul" and the brain.

(*) Yes, I know Buckley's tongue was in his cheek with the "antediluvian" comment, but mine isn't. Separation of soul and brain is antediluvian though.

No brain, no "soul". No problem.

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