Saturday, June 25, 2005  Been there, done that, wasn't
acceptable  Paul Greenberg: A modest proposal takes a look at
how some people these days seem to be going down paths that led
to no good before. He starts with Arlen Specter's justification
for subsidizing stem cell research on human embryos, and goes
from there. ...Remember the various experiments the Japanese
performed on prisoners of war during the 1940s? These subjects
were going to be worked to death anyway, so why not put them to
some scientific use? Back then we could see through such
rationalizations. Not even the records of those experiments
would be used.   All seemed to understand what didn't have to be
said back then: This research was . . . unclean. To touch it
would be to defile oneself, and risk infection by the same
ethical absence that motivated the experiments in the first
place.  There is no scientific explanation for such a feeling;
it is just there. Call it the wisdom of repugnance... Read the
rest of the column  1 comment:  GrannyGru