As you may be aware, Jeff Suppan, of the St. Louis Cardinals, made an ad AGAINST stem cell research. Suppan's ad was meant as a direct attack on an ad by Michael J. Fox for this research. Fox has been suffering from Parkinson's Disease for ten years.
So many people of all ages could be assisted in having better lives because of this research. Those who argue that using embryonic stem cells is immoral because those cells come from aborted fetuses are using the same rationale as those who refused to fund in-vitro fertilization. The argument then was that, as the procedure often requires using more embryos than one -- the first one may not take, it inherently ends a potential life in order to create others. This argument was not only overturned by the foolishness of it, but by the vision of the children who were created in the process. It's one thing to talk about the potentially alive, another to look a live baby straight in the eye.
Similarly, I am sure that once the first person to be cured of Parkinson's Disease through this research is seen on television, opposition will largely end. The vision, of perhaps, a handsome actor in the prime of his life, transformed from pain and the ravages of disease back into his strongest self, will be one to behold. The longer this takes, however, the longer that we should remember how Fox looks, shaking directly into the camera. How much longer must he have to wait? Why should he, or the many children, young adults, etc. who are suffering from this, from diabetes and other ravaging illnesses, have to forfeit their opportunity because our vanity gives us the distance to cherish an abstraction rather than embrace and sympathize with the people in front of us.
Until then, those of us who love baseball should send a message to Jeff Suppan and others who would stand in the way of science. After all, what if Dave Duncan, his pitching coach, had said, "I can get a young, healthy arm to work with, why try to rehabilitate a struggling, aging pitcher?" But, it was precisely Duncan's love for the game and the artistry of it that caused him to invest in the experiment that Suppan was when he came to the Cardinals. How many young pitching prospects are now waiting because his career was given another chance? Of course, he should have been. Duncan knows that, pitchers, like all of us, are worth saving because their god-given talents are not to be taken for granted, but cherished. Every human being deserves that second chance.
Or maybe the Cardinals should let Suppan go and, say, spend their money on a younger arm?
Winning teams, as both the Cardinals and Tigers know, invest in the science necessary to help their players do better. Kenny Rogers, Jeff Suppan and Chris Carpenter are not young by baseball standards. All required work. All three have won in the post-season.
Why shouldn't everyone get a chance to "win in the post-season"?
2 comments:
I can't stand how a lot of those who oppose embryonic stem cell research often have such little regard for the lives of people who have been, you know, born. I mean, people who think that curing a disease with stem cells is monstrous, but deliberately killing civilians in war is unavoidable. You wouldn't think the two things would go together as well as they seem to.
I agree. The argument is the same as the old one against the test tube babies.
Do you hear many people talking about where all these embryos come from? The pro-fetus people may not feel comfortable going attacking those who can't conceive on their own and want a baby so badly that they go to fertility clinics. It is such a paradox, because it is the fertility clinics that make their money by conceiving and freezing surplus embryos. So, it's really the people who couldn't bear to adopt a needy child who generate the surplus embryos whose fate is now being determined. I wonder if these clients of fertility clinics have a common stand on this issue. Each couple is responsible for killing more "babies" than almost any woman who has had an abortion, yet who is vilified? I am not saying anyone should be vilified, but these parents should not be protected from criticism for creating multiple waste embryos knowing they will be killed any more than the woman who is already pilloried for killing one. Nobody wants to kill babies. Period. Let us be equally fair to those committing equivalent acts.
I agree with Pacian. Many opponents of stem cell research are all too ready to have the "born" killed in war. They also tend to give up on the living and award the death sentence.
Post a Comment