Stem cell bill vetoed
The following is an excerpt from an opinion piece written by the nationally syndicated Mr. Terrence P. Jeffrey, published July 16 of the present year in "The Washington Times." Mr. Jeffrey is writing about stem cell research, the Senate bill advancing such research, & the issue confronting George W. Bush & all equally fine, moral Christians. The opening bracketed words were written by me, not by Mr. Jeffrey:
"[In the past when deciding how stem cells must be protected from abuse by medical researchers] Mr. Bush was echoing a principle enunciated by the U.S. judges who tried Nazi doctors at Nuremburg after World War II.
"'In "The Nazi Doctors -- Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide," author Robert J. Lifton chronicled how Adolf Hitler seduced physicians into overseeing mass murder. It started when Hitler directed his own doctor, Karl Brandt, to make certain a single deformed infant was "euthanized." From there, it escalated to Dr. Josef Mengele monitoring the arriving trains at Auschwitz to choose which prisoners to send directly to the gas chambers, which to retain as workers, and which to send to his laboratory for experimentation and dissection.
'"It seemed easier -- perhaps more 'natural' and at least less 'unnatural' -- to begin with the very young: first, newborns; then, children up to 3 and 4; then, older ones," wrote Mr. Lifton, summarizing Germany's initial steps toward medicalized killing.
"At Nuremburg, the judges who sentenced Brandt and other Nazi doctors to death issued a code of principles they believed ought to govern research on human subjects. "The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury," they wrote. "No experiment should be conducted where there is a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur... ."
"When researchers take a human embryo from an in vitro fertilization clinic to extract its stem cells, their intention is to kill it. The intention of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which Mr. Frist supports and will bring to a vote in the Senate, is to take money from working Americans and give it to researchers who, by Mr. Frist's own definition, will take human life.
"It not only violates the Nuremburg Code, it forces taxpayers to pay for the violation.
"Vetoing this bill would be President Bush's finest hour. Before sending it to him, Mr. Frist ought to consider why we condemned Nazi doctors and reconsider his position -- again [End, excerpt]."
Full text of Mr. Jeffrey's opinion piece is available here, entitled "Stemming from Nuremberg:" washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060715-082331-4199r.htm
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- Today, Wednesday, July 19, Bush exercised the first veto of his presidency by striking down the stem cell bill.
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For those who may not know, the 'Mr. Frist' referred to above is Senator William H. Frist, the very right wing physician & Tennessee Republican serving as his party's leader in the United States senate. He is almost a Bush appointee, & certainly a loyal Bush stalwart. He very much wants to become America's next president, however, so from time to time he does something his fellow right wingers find a bit independent & hence naughty. He's a very wealthy guy, too. He has a tidy share of his family's immense business, the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which a few years back was convicted of massive medicare fraud & compelled to pay the largest fine ever assessed against an American company. Sen. Frist is presently under investigation because he is suspected - while serving as a seated U.S. senator - of using insider information to profit in the stock market. When making speeches, Sen. Frist, like his president, has difficulty forming sentences. But unlike his president, his manner is usually so mild one suspects his hero is Caspar Milquetoast.
Unlike Sen. Wm. Frist, who likes to be called 'Bill,' President Bush is not being investigated by any justice department. However, as Charlie Savage of "The Boston Globe's" staff has elaborately revealed & explained, the president has challenged & frequently broken over 750 laws since he took office. The full text of Mr. Savage's article is available on the internet, here:
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/30...
In conclusion, I'll say something about the picture above. It's of an antique telephone on display in a large, magnificent facility; namely, The American Museum of Radio & Electricity, located in Bellingham, Washington. I quite like the bold appearance of the batteries mounted into the phone. I'd like to think they still have some juice in them. And I'd like to ask a question: Did anyone who used this telephone once upon a time in America ever think things would come to be this odd, this crooked ...
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Stem cell bill vetoed
The following is an excerpt from an opinion piece written by the nationally syndicated Mr. Terrence P. Jeffrey, published July 16 of the present year in "The Washington Times." Mr. Jeffrey is writing about stem cell research, the Senate bill advancing such research, & the issue confronting George W. Bush & all equally fine, moral Christians. The opening bracketed words were written by me, not by Mr. Jeffrey:
"[In the past when deciding how stem cells must be protected from abuse by medical researchers] Mr. Bush was echoing a principle enunciated by the U.S. judges who tried Nazi doctors at Nuremburg after World War II.
"'In "The Nazi Doctors -- Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide," author Robert J. Lifton chronicled how Adolf Hitler seduced physicians into overseeing mass murder. It started when Hitler directed his own doctor, Karl Brandt, to make certain a single deformed infant was "euthanized." From there, it escalated to Dr. Josef Mengele monitoring the arriving trains at Auschwitz to choose which prisoners to send directly to the gas chambers, which to retain as workers, and which to send to his laboratory for experimentation and dissection.
'"It seemed easier -- perhaps more 'natural' and at least less 'unnatural' -- to begin with the very young: first, newborns; then, children up to 3 and 4; then, older ones," wrote Mr. Lifton, summarizing Germany's initial steps toward medicalized killing.
"At Nuremburg, the judges who sentenced Brandt and other Nazi doctors to death issued a code of principles they believed ought to govern research on human subjects. "The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury," they wrote. "No experiment should be conducted where there is a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur... ."
"When researchers take a human embryo from an in vitro fertilization clinic to extract its stem cells, their intention is to kill it. The intention of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which Mr. Frist supports and will bring to a vote in the Senate, is to take money from working Americans and give it to researchers who, by Mr. Frist's own definition, will take human life.
"It not only violates the Nuremburg Code, it forces taxpayers to pay for the violation.
"Vetoing this bill would be President Bush's finest hour. Before sending it to him, Mr. Frist ought to consider why we condemned Nazi doctors and reconsider his position -- again [End, excerpt]."
Full text of Mr. Jeffrey's opinion piece is available here, entitled "Stemming from Nuremberg:" washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060715-082331-4199r.htm
----------------
- Today, Wednesday, July 19, Bush exercised the first veto of his presidency by striking down the stem cell bill.
----------------
For those who may not know, the 'Mr. Frist' referred to above is Senator William H. Frist, the very right wing physician & Tennessee Republican serving as his party's leader in the United States senate. He is almost a Bush appointee, & certainly a loyal Bush stalwart. He very much wants to become America's next president, however, so from time to time he does something his fellow right wingers find a bit independent & hence naughty. He's a very wealthy guy, too. He has a tidy share of his family's immense business, the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which a few years back was convicted of massive medicare fraud & compelled to pay the largest fine ever assessed against an American company. Sen. Frist is presently under investigation because he is suspected - while serving as a seated U.S. senator - of using insider information to profit in the stock market. When making speeches, Sen. Frist, like his president, has difficulty forming sentences. But unlike his president, his manner is usually so mild one suspects his hero is Caspar Milquetoast.
Unlike Sen. Wm. Frist, who likes to be called 'Bill,' President Bush is not being investigated by any justice department. However, as Charlie Savage of "The Boston Globe's" staff has elaborately revealed & explained, the president has challenged & frequently broken over 750 laws since he took office. The full text of Mr. Savage's article is available on the internet, here:
www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/30...
In conclusion, I'll say something about the picture above. It's of an antique telephone on display in a large, magnificent facility; namely, The American Museum of Radio & Electricity, located in Bellingham, Washington. I quite like the bold appearance of the batteries mounted into the phone. I'd like to think they still have some juice in them. And I'd like to ask a question: Did anyone who used this telephone once upon a time in America ever think things would come to be this odd, this crooked ...
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