For years we've written about the irrational assertions by scientists intent on destroying human embryos as part of their research. And now, another expert has had enough:
A renowned adult stem cell expert is taking his expertise abroad because he says the UK's bias towards embryo research is preventing him from helping people.But why the unnatural fascination with research centering on the destruction of human life?Colin McGuckin is quitting his position as professor of regenerative medicine at Newcastle University where he says "You would barely know that adult stem cells exist".
Unlike embryonic stem cell research, work with adult stem cells does not involve the destruction of human embryos. It has also shown itself to be more successful.
HT: Black Kettle
Irrational? Really? Try telling a man who can't even remember his wife's name from Alzheimer's that using embryonic stem cells that have been thrown in the trash is "irrational." You people honestly think that it's "immoral" to use embryos unsuitable for IVF clinics, and that the betterment of human life is not worth the use of these small packets of cells that not thrown away would not grow into a person. "You're killing human life!" You people cry, and yet every time a man and a woman conceive a fetus, millions of these "potential lives" die. It's people like you who told Galileo that the world is at the center of the universe, that "God shall not be questioned!" You people claim that you are "pro-life," yet you seek to make sure that life today is as miserable as it was in the dark ages.
Proposal 2 will be passed by truly rational men and women, and your irrational religions will not stand in the way as it has in the past.
Oh, and I am not a liberal. I am a rational Objectivist. A man who will not be told how to think or act, and will not let misery control my life.
I used the word "irrational" because the scientific evidence favors adult stem cell research while only hype (such as you've provided) serves as the motivator for embryonic stem cell research. Really, this is nothing new (from 2004 Washington Post):
But the infrequently voiced reality, stem cell experts confess, is that, of all the diseases that may someday be cured by embryonic stem cell treatments, Alzheimer's is among the least likely to benefit.
"I think the chance of doing repairs to Alzheimer's brains by putting in stem cells is small," said stem cell researcher Michael Shelanski, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, echoing many other experts. "I personally think we're going to get other therapies for Alzheimer's a lot sooner."
I'm guessing John Galt with not approve of taxpayer funding for ESCR.
Ah, it's refreshing to hear someone use something near fact in the pro-life camp. Yet, unfortunately, the voice of one begrudged man is not enough to disprove the work of the scientific community. And just because Alzheimer's may be the last to benefit, does not make ESCR worthless. Parkison's, diabetes, the production of blood, all these benefits will happen. And no, I am not for the government funding. I am simply for the deregulation of stem cell research in Michigan. Congratulations for proving your ability to google my name.
No, I didn't need to Google your assumed name to know its origin. The anecdotal story about Alzheimer's was the evidence you put forward and is really the perfect example of the groundless hype used to motivate taxpayer funding of ESCR. Without gov't funding ECSR will die because private investors generally see through the charade. Remember, the controversy on the federal level was not on the legality of ESCR but instead centered on taxpayer funding.
Beyond this, the destruction of human life for the benefit of another is the fundamental objection I have w/such endeavors.
Thanks for the conversation...
Oh, and I enjoy how your own quote states that these experts believe that ESCR will lead to cures to numerous diseases.
Well I have to say this, the effective ban, and it is in effect a ban on embryonic stem cell research funding from the feds, has chased away and entire generation of stem cell researchers. Cancer it seems uses many of the same tools as the stem cells in a fetus, something even Warburg tried to get across a half century ago. Not listening to him is why we have lost the battle against cancer,,, we simply never targeted the cancer stem cells, the ones responsible for the spread of disease, the little devils pump out chemo, and grow faster when you hit them with radiation, unless your really fry the tumor early before it spreads. The entire generation of stem cell researchers that bush and the religous right chased away, were in fact our cancer researchers.
A good and recent paper on this is a paper on "Bell Shaped Nuclei" by E.V. Gostjeva et al, Jan 2006, it compares colon cancer stem cells to a fetal colon stem cell that was busy making a new colon. They were identical, each making the same seven cell types. But we can't get funding for embryonic stem cell study for 8 years now,, while millions die from treatable disease,, and they die because groups want to protect a microscopic pinhead of cells that will be thrown in the garbage can when its frozen shelf life is reached. God wouldn't be so cruel, so stupid, as to impose this, only the church could do it. The church has opposed every major advance in the history of medicine as "opposing God's will". They are at it again. Its time to throw them out of medicine and out of our lives. The alternative is to die earlier and to suffer more in the course of life.
When you add up the 2 million or so who die every year from diabetes, heart disease, and yes cancer in the United States, Bush's denial of federal funding has killed 16 million Americans who could have otherwise lived. This intrusion of church into state has caused the biggest mass murder since Adolf Hitler. Consider too that the U.S. is a world leader in medicine, the research we don't fund will have to happen slower because we just aren't in it like we should be, like we could be...
Oh, and your wonderful skin cell derived faux stem cell products, they all have hundreds of genes that are switched incorrectly when compared to the cell target. The FDA will never approve a treatment based on so many genes being switched improperly. If you have any doubt about my claims here you need to get a translation of the Japanese paper on skin cell derived faux stem cells that was published the same time as the U.S. paper. The FDA would have to quantify these gene switchings, to make sure they don't harm people, that will take decades more of denial of medical care, and millions more dead people.
I hereby formally accuse the church of mass murder on the largest scale in history, and that those responsible be drug in front of an international court for the deaths of millions who have died and will die for this war on science, logic, reason, and medical care. Its a war that has killed millions and will kill many more. Again, I accuse the catholic church and most U.S. based churches of mass murder by intentional denial of medical care. I hereby request their prosecution in an international court of law, and for people to discard the church as it has nothing to do with God.
I have top posted this to Jeremiah Films. Blogwatch Life
Robert, I'm glad that I'm getting some backup here, but you're a little late with the charge against the church. Why, even if Bush hadn't cut funding and the ban hadn't been put in place, the added up deaths of the Inquisition, Crusades, and "witch" burnings would have quite easily reached your quota for the range of Hitler's mass murder. Even funnier is the fact that Hitler forced conversion of his troops to Christianity, and used the motto, "God with us."
I also enjoy how the "pro-lifer's" last line of defense against me is the blocking of my arguments against plb, seeing as the restriction of freedom of speech is their best weapon. Do you hear me, Galileo? I feel your pain.
Yes, it would be hilarious if they weren't killing so many of us with forced ignorance. The church in the past has opposed :
autopsy to learn about the human body and find the cause of death
surgery, even lifesaving surgery
antibiotics, as they denied "god's will" which is of course death
blood transfusions, and one church still notably forbids this
the list goes on and on, and each time they intervene into science and medicine they kill more of us.
the illustrations you cite regarding past mass killings in gods name happened over long periods of time, this death toll of 20 million only counts the dead in the United States, and only over a short period of about 16 years. Worldwide that number will be so much larger that this church declared war on science will kill a hundreds of millions.
A mystical belief that harvesting human embryos will produce miracle cures deserves opposition and condemnation. You demand my hard earned money to support your immoral and speculative research and then suggest that to otherwise is killing? I have to wonder how many more additional therapeutic applications of adult stem cell research would now be available had not junk scientists used the power of politics to fund their empires. I tire of hearing these overly optimistic prognosticators exploit those in need by suggesting that their dead-end and immoral research will provide immediate relief to virtually every chronic condition known to man.
What a bunch of crock. You're in no position to be arguing against "mystical beliefs." I never said that I personally want federal funding, I can simply accept the reality that if either John McCain or Barack Obama win the presidency, federal funding of ESCR will happen.
Really, junk scientists? Speculative research? It seems to me that you "pro-lifers" are so busy trying to shut down the right of the scientific community to speak that you can't even take the effort to scroll up and see the "speculative" research done with ESC on mice in regards to diabetes and blood production, which will become, if it hasn't already, very important in hospitals, and you will probably receive some in your future, ironically. Or you could stick to leeches. Whatever your church thinks is best for you.
Yes, you tire of having to think. Your dogma upbringing has made you hate scientific research, so you just try to ignore it, hoping people like the school board of education in Texas will make "immoral science" go away. "Oh, we need to represent the anti-evolution side equally!" It's these examples of anti-science (which, in effect, is anti-thought, anti-mind, and, in the end, anti-life) that really make me sick.
Yes, adult stem cells are good. But do you really think that we should dump ESC just like they dump them in trash bins at IVF clinics just because some church vaguely describes their use as "immoral?" Not using ESCR is like forcing Galileo to have come up with his ideas of the universe without his telescope or background in mathematics. You need both to test against each other, and to have more opportunities such as the ones given above.
Thank's Robert, I'll have to use those arguments elsewhere.
I think the bashing of the church is really old and silly, because leaders of many creeds have exploited beliefs for negative ends for eons. Also, any organization that uses murder, restriction of free speech, or forming dictatorial policies isn't a true representative of a Christian church at all. Also, atheists within the Soviet Union, Cuba, and other nations killed over 100 million people during the 20th century alone. Now, it isn't against reason to reject ESC. The reason is that ESC has been ineffective in harboring real cures or treatments upon human beings. Likewise, adult stem cells, cord blood cells, etc. have brought healing and treatment toward thousands of patients. Also, there are new replacements for ESC that you don't need to kill embryos. Yet, these replacement have the same embryonic-like properties necessary for the improvement of patients. Also, trying the same thing over and over again is one definition of insanity. The pro-abortion ilk try the ESCs over and over again to try to get cures for decades. No cures persist, yet they still persure ESCs. If that isn't a clear definition of insanity, I don't know what is.
"Mystical" because the imminent cures are shouted from the MSN rooftops (and individuals like Robert) as certain only because they are desirable - not because they are technically feasible (tumors, rejection, etc). Junk science are the reports from groups that provide miracle cures via anecdotal evidence alone. Speculative because every ESCR study is marketed with "scientists suggest this may one day lead to a cure for _____" which instantly means the cure is a sure thing. The use of religious vilification is an off topic ad hominen (illogical) attack based upon assumption w/out substance and not worthy of reply.
I for one, strongly advocate adult stem cell research as moral, effective and worthy of personal support.
The argument that ESCs haven't creatd a cure is monstrous since you continue to cause them to be thrown into the garbage can when they reach the end of their microscopic frozen SHELF LIFE. Also, a company called Geron is on FDA hold as a result of the Bush and church, the FDA hold is stopping the crippled from walking again, its a spinal cord repair trial they are holding up. The trial uses "bush nazi approved cells", yet FDA throws more obstacles in its path. How can even your illogical minds not see that when you don't fund the research you won't find a cure. When you get your adult stem cell "cure" don't be suprised if the errant gene expressions found in those cells that have already traveled down the road of differentiation once, cause some unwanted change in your body. Perhaps a couple of horns out of your inquisitor heads. Even the devil quotes scripture. There will be hell to pay at the pearlie gates for the zealots, god doesn't easily forget mass murder.
ESCR that destroys (a synonym for "kill") a human being to extract the stem cells they need should be banned. It's not. The Nazi's pushed the same type of unbridled research which killed other humans as part of their scientific quests. How ironic it is that you now suggest that laws which only stop our tax dollars from funding immoral research are similar to those the Nazis issues.
You can yell all you want about the speculative research and the marketed promises for cures (publicized to gain funding) that won't be pursued. The bottom line is that killing humans in research is immoral. Don't demand that society fund such abominations.
On the otherhand, what's wrong with pursuing research aimed at developing embryonic-like stem cells from adult stem cells? At least the immune response is eliminated.
From Investor's Business Daily:
Bioethics: UCLA scientists have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells. The process doesn't use human eggs or destroy human embryos, so you may not have heard of it.
Confirming the work first reported last November by researcher Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University and James Thompson at the University of Wisconsin, researchers at UCLA also have managed to coax the human skin cells back in time to a point in their development before they had committed to becoming a particular type of tissue.
The reprogrammed cells, known as "induced pluripotent stem cells," genetically matched to the donor, can be used to grow tissues for future use in tissue replacement therapies, including a range of things from regeneration of damaged heart tissue to Parkinson's to spinal-cord injury.
The discovery potentially provides a virtually unlimited supply of embryonic stem cells without the moral baggage of or need to use human embryos, cloning or human eggs. It also takes such research out of the political arena back into the realm of science where it belongs.
"Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually undistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," said Kethrin Plathm, assistant professor of biological chemistry and lead author of the study. "Our findings are an important step towards manipulating differentiated human cells to generate an unlimited supply of patient specific pluripotent stem cells"
"Reprogramming normal human stem cells into cells with identical properties to those in embryonic stem cells . . . may have important therapeutic ramifications and provide us with another valuable method to develop human stem cell lines," says William Lowry, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, and co-author of the study that appeared Feb. 11 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.
The National Institutes of Health say this type of stem cell offers the prospect of having a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few.
The work of the UCLA team, Yamanaka, Thompson and others may lead to a day when after a heart attack, for example, skin cells from the patient could be similarly manipulated to form muscle cells to repair damage to the heart, or brain cells to repair the effects of Parkinson's. Because they were the patient's own cells, the problem of rejection is solved.
First off you are terribly wrong. Its the church who has married with the federal government to become a fascist and nazi like state. Second: I have already posted that the cells are microscopic balls of goo, not humans, no hand no feet, no nothing, microscopic balls of goo that you need a mircroscope to see. So much for your exaggerations.
Thirdly, the research you posted resulted in cells that will NEVER be used to save human lives, those skin cells have hundreds of genes that are switched to the WRONG position. They could and likely would change the person you put them into, maybe even kill him.
I say again, the church and its followers are guilty of murder and fascism and I request that they be taken in front of the international court and made to pay for the mass murder of millions of Americans. When the church has political power good sir, that is fascism by definition. We won't keep throwing those cells into the garbage can when they reach their frozen shelf life, just to satisfy your desire to judge other human beings in gods name. I hold you in contempt , not just for your cruelty, but for your fascist contempt for the lives of the living. Funny how your kind (inquisitors) never objected to these embryonic stem cells being harvested from women for the purpose of making babies at fertility clinics. You never objected to them being thrown in the garbage can when the woman or couple no longer needed the extra fertilized MICROSCOPIC eggs. But as soon as it became a political issue with which you could judge others, you picked up the issue. You're all about judging others and passing moral judgment in god's name. By very definition that is fascism. Mass murder is typical of such a system and denying embryonic stem cell research and the current spinal cord trial is torture and murder, and mass murder.
There has never been a bigger mass murderer than the collective church.
I want to say it again, the research you cite produces cells that have hundreds of genes that are incorrectly switched, the FDA will never be able to create a treatment from them unless and until they can explain all the erroneous gene switchings. That won't happen for decades. ESCs are being used in other countries right now to cure people, so are ASCs. The church's interference into politics and medicine has stopped any treatment from being used in the United States. I pray that you pay in a court of law or God for the murders you and your church are responsible for.
Oh, and your favorite political faithful creep, GW Bush, has rolled back the clean air act by changing the administrative rules that change when and IF the clean air act kicks in. The American Lung Association states that this action alone has killed 12,000 Americans per year due to lung cancer , asthma, and pushing the elderly into death. The EPA's own figures, bring that number closer to 25,000 extra dead per year from air pollution. Now there are 100,000 to 200,000 dead Americans that your Georgie Bush is directly responsible for. The utility companies who burn coal paid him millions to change the administrative rules that killed this nearly quarter million men women and children, here in the Untied States. Praise God ,,, right?
Here , here is your fascism. We need to tell our children the truth, that they live in a fascist state:::::
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From Liberty Forum
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?
I see more than a few here which are present today in the current "conservative" thinking. Scarey.
Tumors and rejection you say? Why, I think you might want to look at something buddy!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/02/040212090522.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080411082935.htm
Funny, the second article talks about how ESC can help overcome rejection. Irony, eh?
Oh cut the crock. Enough with this "junk science" argument. It must really be difficult to stop all cognitive thought in your head, or maybe not, dogma can do that to a guy. In reference to ESC only providing "potential" cures, please scroll up and see the articles I posted earlier, look at Robert's arguments, and grow some gray matter.
Really, illogical? I don't know about you, but the whole thing about the only denouncers of ESCR being religious tends to back my point up a bit.
Can you not read? Or is it too difficult as it forces you to think? I've already said that adult stem cells are good, but, again, only using those SC is like forcing Galileo to figure out the universe without his telescope or background in mathematics. Please, do us a favor and think before you talk.
George W. Bush is hardly a conservative as evident by his policies. His policies of overspending, driving up deficits, and having laws that contradict our civil liberties aren't an actual conservative agenda to me. Regardless of what the mainstream media says, Bush has contradicted many real conservative values. That's why George W. Bush passed the bailout that's doing little to create economic growth. That bailout is hardly a conservative ideal. A controlled mass media inhibits free speech and therefore isn't a conservative nor liberal value. Also, pro-lifers aren't monolithic. Religion merged with government is just as evil as government suppressing religious liberty. On many occasions in America, Canada, and Europe, religious liberty has been suppressed. Even peaceful pastors have been threatened with losing their tax exempt status for just outlining their free speech right. Scapegoating people is wrong and is apart of extremism.
This has effected both liberal and conservative pastors. The reason is that pro-lifers harbor a wide spectrum of issues in which they advance. That agenda include help for the environment, being against the Iraq, and cleaning up the corruption presently existing in our federal government. You can say the policies of Bush are extremist, but hardly conservative.
The very fact that churches have tax exempt status shows that they have crossed into "state" with their influence.
Oh, and John, Geron claims that their embryonic stem cell products are "immune priveleged", meaning that the immune system won't attack them. So the patient won't have to take high dose prednisone (causes cancer) and cyclosporin, etc. He won't have to wake up one day and find that his thigh bones no longer have enough calicium left in them to support his weight and they break like glass.
For all you religious fundamentalists out there, I just thought I would throw in my two cents... I am in no way religious at all, but one day in Theology class (mandatory)I was reading about some more mass murders "in the name of the lord" and thought I would look around on the internet for something to explain this hypocrisy. This also helped me on my debate case on abortion:
When Does Life Begin?
According to the bible, life begins at birth--when a baby draws its first breath. The bible defines life as "breath" in several significant passages, including the story of Adam's creation in Genesis 2:7, when God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Jewish law traditionally considers that personhood begins at birth.
Desperate for a biblical basis for their beliefs, some antiabortionists cite obscure passages, usually metaphors or poetic phrasing, such as: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5 This is sexist, but does nothing other than to invoke original sin. It says nothing about abortion.
The Commandments, Moses, Jesus and Paul ignored every chance to condemn abortion. If abortion was an important concern, why didn't the bible say so?
Thou Shalt Not Kill?
Many antiabortionists quote the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" (Ex. 20:13) as evidence that the bible is antiabortion. They fail to investigate the bible's definition of life (breath) or its deafening silence on abortion. Moreover, the Mosaic law in Exodus 21:22-25, directly following the Ten Commandments, makes it clear that an embryo or fetus is not a human being.
An honest reader must admit that the bible contradicts itself. "Thou shalt not kill" did not apply to many living, breathing human beings, including children, who are routinely massacred in the bible. The Mosaic law orders "Thou shalt kill" people for committing such "crimes" as cursing one's father or mother (Ex. 21:17), for being a "stubborn son" (Deut. 21:18-21), for being a homosexual (Lev. 20:13), or even for picking up sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-35)! Far from protecting the sanctity of life, the bible promotes capital punishment for conduct which no civilized person or nation would regard as criminal.
Mass killings were routinely ordered, committed or approved by the God of the bible. One typical example is Numbers 25:4-9, when the Lord casually orders Moses to massacre 24,000 Israelites: "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun." Clearly, the bible is not pro-life!
Most scholars and translators agree that the injunction against killing forbade only the murder of (already born) Hebrews. It was open season on everyone else, including children, pregnant women and newborn babies.
Does God Kill Babies?
"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."--Psalm 137:9
The bible is not pro-child. Why did God set a bear upon 42 children just for teasing a prophet (2 Kings 2:23-24)? Far from demonstrating a "pro-life" attitude, the bible decimates innocent babies and pregnant women in passage after gory passage, starting with the flood and the wanton destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, progressing to the murder of the firstborn child of every household in Egypt (Ex. 12:29), and the New Testament threats of annihilation.
Space permits only a small sampling of biblical commandments or threats to kill children:
• Numbers 31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones.
• Deuteronomy 2:34 utterly destroyed the men and the women and the little ones.
• Deuteronomy 28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters.
• I Samuel 15:3 slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.
• 2 Kings 8:12 dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
• 2 Kings 15:16 all the women therein that were with child he ripped up.
• Isaiah 13:16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished.
• Isaiah 13:18 They shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.
• Lamentations 2:20 Shall the women eat their fruit, and children.
• Ezekiel 9:6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children.
• Hosea 9:14 give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
• Hosea 13:16 their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
Then there are the dire warnings of Jesus in the New Testament:
"For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck."--Luke 23:29
The teachings and contradictions of the bible show that antiabortionists do not have a "scriptural base" for their claim that their deity is "pro-life." Spontaneous abortions occur far more often than medical abortions. Gynecology textbooks conservatively cite a 15% miscarriage rate, with one medical study finding a spontaneous abortion rate of almost 90% in very early pregnancy. That would make a deity in charge of nature the greatest abortionist in history!
Are Bible Teachings Kind to Women?
The bible is neither antiabortion nor pro-life, but does provide a biblical basis for the real motivation behind the antiabortion religious crusade: hatred of women. The bible is anti-woman, blaming women for sin, demanding subservience, mandating a slave/master relationship to men, and demonstrating contempt and lack of compassion:
"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."--Genesis 3:16
What self-respecting woman today would submit willingly to such tyranny?
The antiabortion position does not demonstrate love for humanity, or compassion for real human beings. Worldwatch Institute statistics show that 50% of abortions worldwide are illegal, and that at least 200,000 women die every year--and thousands more are hurt and maimed--from illegal or self-induced abortions. Unwanted pregnancies and complications from multiple pregnancies are a leading killer of women. Why do antiabortionists want North American women to join these ghastly mortality statistics? Every day around the world more than 40,000 people, mostly children, die from starvation or malnutrition. We must protect and cherish the right to life of the already-born.
Do Churches Support Abortion Rights?
Numerous Christian denominations and religious groups agree that the bible does not condemn abortion and that abortion should continue to be legal. These include:
• American Baptist Churches-USA
• American Ethical Union
• American Friends (Quaker) Service Committee
• American Jewish Congress
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Episcopal Church
• Lutheran Women's Caucus
• Moravian Church in America-Northern Province
• Presbyterian Church (USA)
• Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
• Union of American Hebrew Congregations
• Unitarian Universalist Association
• United Church of Christ
• United Methodist Church
• United Synagogue of America
• Women's Caucus Church of the Brethren
• YWCA
• Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
• Catholics for Free Choice
• Evangelicals for Choice
Belief that "a human being exists at conception" is a matter of faith, not fact. Legislating antiabortion faith would be as immoral and unAmerican as passing a law that all citizens must attend Catholic mass!
The bible does not condemn abortion; but even if it did, we live under a secular constitution, not in a theocracy. The separation of church and state, the right to privacy, and women's rights all demand freedom of choice.
Nontract No. 7. © 2007 Published by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., PO Box 750, Madison WI 53701.
I added that last paragraph...