Public moral issues

I was very proud of David Gelernter’s op-ed in the Wednesday 10^th Wall Street Journal.

‘James Dobson of Focus on the Family ….compared embryonic stem cell research to Nazi death-camp experiments.” Consequently several groups and people ‘popped up on cue to demand an immediate Dobson apology -- such Jewish groups as the Anti-Defamation League, political groups like ProgressNow.org and many individuals’

Gelernter made the wonderful point that this is a moral discussion and should be treated as such. The opposition to Dobson had a responsibility to make a civil argument not demand an apology.

Gelernter argued that embryos do not have families or feelings, so a comparison to Nazi-death camps is invalid. A public apology under pressure is irrelevant. Dobson tried to use his most extreme example of satanic horror and he got it wrong. Opponents have a civic responsibility to explain it to him and the public.

There is a moral issue here and a moral debate is going on that will last decades. Using human embryos for research may be medically useful, but using human embryos is not an automatic act like pouring alcohol in a beaker. Moreover, may people (myself included) are concerned that research on human embryos could lead to genetically engineered humans. A subject much more closely related to Nazi ideas, that we reject.

For those of you outside this subject, I have worked in the field of human genetic engineering for a decade and helped on the 2002 Japanese law, which I consider a perfect model. Japan prohibits implanting a genetically engineered embryo in a womb. Period.