Bush Vetoes Science, Again. [A Crude Lesson in Human Sexuality & Reproduction Courtesy of Ignorance]

You may be excused if you didn't know any better, but today?... Applied ignorance is deadly!

I believe in order to make sure the sun rises, we have to open a human chest cavity and extract the heart; we have to do this every day, on some days multiple times! That's my belief. And, you have to respect that, because it's my religious belief! *

Now, if I convince enough people to go along with this, we'll ensure that stupid claims can claim human lives and worsen the lives of those left behind! Isn't what president Bush is actually doing with his latest veto of the stem cell funding bill?

"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others," said Bush after he vetoed the Congressional bill passed with big bi-partisan support. Yet, our Congress still has many more scientifically-illiterate people to sustain Bush's veto. Don't you see the connection between the people and those we elect? Many Republican presidential candidates openly say they don't believe in evolution--one of our strongest scientific theories we've got! These politicians appeal to their base, or, in other words, they reflect the public sentiment of their base!

Why do these people believe that a collection of a few cells constitutes human life? Well, they don't know, but it's their religious belief! Even though 2/3 of Americans favor stem cell research, this president is putting ideology (read: religion, or, how to keep the loons' support of his shrinking base) above science.

What's science? Well, in short, it's the collective body of empirical evidence, research & inquiry, the ability to amend, the theories that have given us answers about many marvels of the universe, etc.. Oh, science has also made possible the doubling of human life expectancy in the last 100 years! Not bad, heh? If a few people have no idea--nor do they care to know--how the human body works, should they be in charge of giving us moral imperatives on how to conduct science?

When, for example, was it that a fertilized human ovum became a human being? Is sperm too? Both sexes expel these naturally. Who was the headmaster of religious interpretation that decreed stem cells are humans beings? Is it written in any ancient holy book? Or, is it because the "authorities" tell us that they have a direct connection to a supreme being and, thus, divine knowledge?

At first it might sound unrelated, but this fits nicely with a religious view towards sex, whereas sex should be only for procreation and under strict rules in order to satisfy the deity... and, to a lesser extend male dominance. That's why
we condemn AIDS but condoms even more! That's why we (the US) allow the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the advanced world, because sex ed and birth control are deemed worse! That's why we allow for a system that puts obstacles to women's reproductive choices, forcing unwanted pregnancies, but promptly abandon the newborns and their mothers. Er, I meant, we do build more jails to institutionalize those who come from broken households and enter a life of crime. That's not so smart I reckon.

"These boys and girls are not spare parts," he said of the children in the audience. "They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells." Bush, 43rd president of the USA

I wonder how the world would've been today if papa George Bush had destroyed a human life, some 62 years ago, by masturbating?... Or, that the elder Barbara Bush had her fertilized egg gone down the tubes soon after, as it naturally happens to many women... We'll never know. If we were to follow Bush's credo, those women who try in-vitro fertilization--whereas many eggs are fertilized in the process--are potential criminals, if they are not implanted with all the eggs. This incredible claim is even more absurd if you consider that Bush won't support scientific research that harvests those unused stem cells (taken from unused fertilized eggs) to try to cure dreadful diseases, like Alzheimer's....

Yes, it's true, the combination of sperm & ovum have the potential or turning into a human being--most don't however. Keep in mind that even if a bunch of cells do turn into a person, there are no guarantees that this born individual will indeed exercise his/her mind instead of preferring dogma & ignorance over enlightenment!

Please, don't tell me that elections don' have consequences and that all politicians are the same....


Editor's note: Sketch by XKCD [click on it to make it larger]

* An Aztec practice. Fortunately, as the current (and by dogma, infallible) Pope said, Christianity "purified the indigenous people."