Politics
Tuesday May 9, 2006
Why Embryonic Stem Cell Research? It's About Human Engineering, Not Ending Disease
Quest for a 'superhuman' race and to create a race of sub-humans to do menial or dangerous tasks
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By John-Henry Westen
SPRINGFIELD, IL, May 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Dr. David Reardon, Ph.D., best known for his voluminous research on the after-effects of abortion on women, has launched a new venture to pre-emptively ban human engineering which he contends is the root of the quest for embryonic stem cell research.
Many have wondered at the insistence on funding for and pursuit of embryonic stem cell research given the fact that there is not even one embryonic stem cell therapy currently in use while adult stem cell therapies are used every day in the treatment of nearly a hundred different diseases.
Reardon, a biomedical ethicist whose studies have been published in such prestigious medical journals as the British Medical Journal and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview that the key to understanding the dilemma is the quest for a 'superhuman' race and to create a race of sub-humans to do menial or dangerous tasks. While embryonic stem cell researchers prefer to talk about the goal of ending disease, their ultimate goal is to create "better people," says Dr. Reardon.
While the claims may sound preposterous, Dr. Reardon, a consummate researcher, has done his homework and amassed a startling series of quotes from leading scientists which prove his point.
For example, James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for describing DNA structures, has proclaimed stupidity a disease and wants the freedom to design "better people" who lack the hypothetical "stupidity" gene. In a 2003 televised interview Watson, now president of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York said, "If you are really stupid, I would call that a disease . . . so I'd like to get rid of that . . . People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."
Additionally, Dr. Joseph Fletcher a Harvard Professor widely recognized as the "patriarch of bioethics", who died in 1991, said, "Chimeras [human-animal crossbreads] or parahumans might legitimately be fashioned to do dangerous or demeaning jobs. As it is now, low-grade work is shoved off on moronic and retarded individuals, the victims of uncontrolled reproduction. Should we not program such workers 'thoughtfully' instead of accidentally, by means of hybridization?"
Gregory Stock, the Director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society at UCLA's School of Public Health and author of the 2002 book "Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future" has said, "If biological manipulation is indeed a slippery slope, then we are already sliding down that slope now and may as well enjoy the ride.''
Furthermore, Dr. Reardon's website devoted to the subject, lists, in addition to more salient quotes, links to organizations devoted to 'transhumanism' or moving forward human evolution through genetic manipulation.
Dr. Reardon has formed a coalition to enact a pre-emptive ban on human engineering and require that the scientists who wish to pursue such research first prove their efficacy with animal experiments and then appeal for approval of further research from voters.
An initiative to amend the Missouri constitution to erect a pre-emptive ban on human engineering, defined as any act that genetically alters human gametes or "nascent human life," has been filed with the Secretary of State's office for the November election.
See Dr. Reardon's website:
http://www.elliotinstitute.org
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.