Aug. 14, 2006
 
MANN TALK: Eagle Eggs and Embryos
 
By Perry Mann
 
Hinton, WV (HNN) – Monsignor P. Edward Sadie takes issue with a Charleston Gazette editorial titled “Pro-life: Stem cells offer hope.” He states that the Catholic Church is not an obstacle to stem-cell research but insists that medical research “respect human dignity” and not reduce human embryos to ”simple laboratory material.” He further asserts: “Morally, ethically, even humanely-speaking, one cannot justify taking innocent life for any real or alleged good.”
 
Innocent life as I write is being taken by the morgue load in Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon for a reason that is real and good in the perspective of the respective members of the warring parties. Killing is war’s occupation and profit, and innocents must watch out for themselves.
 
Then this: “The church, as the conscience of society, calls for moral and ethical reflection on the use of human embryos from stem-cell research. People of faith must not stand by and let newspapers editors, politicians and movie stars formulate a culture in which human life is viewed basically as a commodity that can be created for parts to be bought and sold.”
 
And this: “The Bald Eagle Protection Act, passed in 1940, protects the national adult bird and also that bird’s eggs. I wager you are willing to protect this embryonic animal while, at the same time, standing ready to offer up our embryonic brothers and sisters on the altar of stem-cell sacrifice. I cringe at the moral confusion in the editors of a newspaper with such influence.”
 
Why should medical research respect human dignity over the dignity of any other species? Science uses many species for research: rats, rabbits, mice, and any other species that it can use to further its experiments on behalf of humans. The Church seldom says a word in protest to the use of other species. Why? Because the Church presumes that all other species are animals and that humans are semi-divine; that is, they have a soul, have free will and if it is used rightly can have a heaven hereafter. Further, it presumes that there is a God who had a Son. Upon these presumptions the Church is founded. But its foundation is faith and faith has no underpinning but hope: It is an implausible hypothesis irrationally held.
 
There is no evidence that a reasonable person would consider conclusive that there is a God, that humans have a soul, that humans have free will and that they are different in kind from all other life. Thus the premises of Monsignor’s arguments against stem-cell research are faith-base and not science-based. And to that extent, to one who looks to science for truth, his premises are divinely revealed, rationally suspect and sentimentally based.
 
The eagle is a cousin. If one were to compare the genetic content of the DNA of the eagle with humans, he would find that, in fact, the eagle is a close relative. The eagle in his niche is king and adapted wonderfully to his environment. Like man he grows from a baby to an adult. Also like man he mates, has a family, provides for the family, protects the family and preys upon other species for food. He has a brain, keen eyes, a heart and all the other organs man has. And since there are just a few hundred eagles remaining on earth and since there are 6 billion humans here, and millions more every day, the value of an eagle or an eagle egg is precious relative to the embryo of a human, of which there are millions in hand and multi-billions in potential.
 
But the Church believes that the embryo of a human has a soul and the egg of an eagle does not. How does the Church know this? It has no way of knowing. There is no evidence that man has a soul and an eagle does not. Man in his arrogance and androcentric illusion presumes that he has a soul and the eagle does not and that therefore human embryos are more precious than eagle eggs.
 
The Church, says Monsignor, is the conscience of society. It is not my conscience and I am a part of society. It is not because its morality is human oriented and centered. The Church takes for truth that God did all that Genesis alleges He did: That he created all things material and organic, made man in his image and ordained that he should rule over all and use all to his welfare and comfort, including all other life. But the truth probably is that Creation is a fable, upon which mythical foundation the Church derives many of its beliefs. The Church talks but does walk Christ’s truth.
 
Evolutionary truth is that all life began billions of years ago and evolved into innumerable species, one of which is man and another of which is the eagle. Man has proliferated. He has elbowed all other species to the margins and has caused by his numbers the reduction of the numbers of countless other species, including the eagle. Further, the truth is that man may, and perhaps will, expand his numbers to twice what they are but the result will be woe for man and extinction for all other species except for the turkey vultures.
 
Monsignor’s premises in his arguments against the use of embryos for medical purposes are weak, if not lifeless. Further, he does not argue fairly. There is no evidence that editors, politicians and movie stars are sociopaths and have in mind, when they support embryonic stem-cell research, formulating “a culture in which human life is viewed basically as a commodity that can be created for parts to be bought and sold.” To argue that their consciences are less acute than Monsignor’s is to argue ad hominem and to argue arrogantly.
 
The really low blow by Monsignor is this: “I wager you are (the “you” I take to be me) willing to protect this embryonic animal while, at the same time, standing ready to offer up our embryonic brothers and sisters on the altar of stem-cell sacrifice.” It would be interesting to see what conversations and relations Monsignor would have with his stem-cell brothers and sisters, who are no larger than---think of this---the period at the end of this sentence. Monsignor has aped the politicians. He has demagogically converted a few cells to “brothers and sisters,” for shame. Yes, I would sacrifice stem-cells for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, with whom I spend an evening, during which they sit in chairs and talk and laugh and cry and drink a toast with me.
 
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Perry Mann is a former teacher, a lawyer, a former prosecuting attorney of Summers County and a regular columnist for the Nicholas Chronicle in Summersville and Huntington News Network. Born in Charleston, WV, in 1921, he lives in Hinton and on a farm in Forest Hill, Summers County.