08/06/2005: In her column with WorldNetDaily, Dr. Kelly Hollowell weighs in on Frist’s stem-cell blunders.
I once had respect for Frist. However, throughout his Senatorial career, he has been repeatedly investigated on suspicion of providing leadership–and found innocent every time. He has accomplished nothing as a Senator because he stands for nothing. He has traded his pro-life values for a few nods of approval from the New York Times.
Nancy Reagan and Michael J. Fox notwithstanding, the debate over embryonic stem-cell research is little more than an attempt to provide moral legitimacy to abortion. As the legal and scientific foundations for Roe v. Wade continue to crumble, the academic-scientific complex (the left-wing version of the military-industrial complex) is fighting heavily to put a pro-life face on the slaughter of innocents.
And make no mistake: Roe is in trouble. The Scott Peterson case alone puts Roe in jeopardy: in order to uphold the Peterson death sentence, the very foundation of the Roe v. Wade decision–that an unborn child is not a person–is indefensible.
Scientifically, Roe is in trouble because viability–the point in pregnancy at which a child can survive outside the womb–is moving further back toward conception. At the time of Roe, few infants born before 30 weeks survived. Today, that is closer to 20 weeks. Technological advances will one day push that well into the first trimester. Once viability gets within the first trimester, Roe is done.
As for embryonic stem-cell research, it turns us into cannibals. I expect the scientific community–which is secular and amoral–to pursue this because they have no compunction about making other people die so they can advance their agendas. And–make no mistake–they have their agendas. When the scientific community is allowed to operate outside moral constraints, they will end up doing for us what they did for Nazi Germany.
At 38, I am finding that my joints aren’t as good as they were 20 years ago. Gone are the days when I could blow most people away at the shuttle run, or leap down a flight of stairs, or even run marathons (I’ve run five, plus a 31-mile ultra-marathon). I now live with the reality that my back is not as flexible as it used to be. I would love to see science find cures for arthritis, cancer, diabetes, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, and a whole host of ailments that stifle our productivity and quality of life.
Killing children is not an acceptable way to get there.
That said, there is a way that does hold promise: adult stem cell research. In fact, adult stem cell research has shown great promise, as opposed to embryonic stem cell research, which–in its 25 years of hype–has been a utter bust.
Remember: if embryonic stem cell reseach was so promising, then the Capital-Financial Complex (the libertarian version of the academic-scientific complex, which is the left-wing version of the military industrial complex) would be dumping billions of dollars into it. But that’s not happening. Ergo, the academic-scientific complex wants government to extort the money from you and me.
That leads me to another point: why is the GOP–the party of limited government–not fighting this battle on that front? It is not the government’s job to fund all medical and scientific research, especially in fields–such as embryonic stem cell research–that have shown no results.
