Closer to the edge (Cal Thomas)

Washington Times ^ | 1/05/03 | Cal Thomas

[Blue Collar Christian]

Your implications are scarey in at least two ways:
1. The very real and pathetic likelihood that cloning will be done in the future en masse, possibly engineered for slavery, soldiering, and spare body parts.
2. The danger of us non-clones believing they do not have souls where possibly they might have souls, or believing they have souls when indeed they are souless. If the scientific community can convince us, like they have on evolution through abortion, that clones are souless, they surely have pretty much gone to the next to the last step in declaring man to be only worth $.

[Blue Collar Christian]

".. the test will be to determine if they have a soul."

Maybe the same test they must have used on our unborn children?

[Blue Collar Christian]

Pray for them, brother.
P.S. By your screen name, thank you for serving.SALUTE!

[Blue Collar Christian]

And thank you, .30Carbine.

[Blue Collar Christian]

If you're heading this up, let's hear your plan! I'm already praying.

[Bernard Marx]

cynical but alas, accurate.

If it's accurate, why do you call it cynical? Refusal to acknowledge cause and effect (aka "political correctness") is leading civilization horribly astray. If reality = cynicism, then I think we're doomed.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

You are right! We will not be able to be sure whether or not they have souls... like I said before, playing "god" has it's price tag.

[Gritty]

I know a way to stop this cloning movement dead in it's tracks.

Start cloning Ronald Reagan!

[Lorianne]

The part that was accurate was who we progressed into this mess and how predictable it was. The part that was cynical is that there is no reversal.

[Lorianne]

I definitely believe minds can be changed on this front. As you imply, we must simply roll up our sleeves and do it.

[Bernard Marx]

The part that was cynical is that there is no reversal.

I agree it was entirely predictable. I've been reading very sobering science-fiction extrapolations of what will result from this kind of man-as-God biological tinkering since at least the 1950s, and Aldous Huxley had a few things to say as early as 1932. The idea goes back at least to Mary Shelley and earlier. Margaret Sanger popularized "improvement" of the human species through eugenics early in the last century with her Planned Parenthood -- an idea that later appealed very much to Adolph Hitler.

As for "cynical," I think we define the word differently. I see it as being unduly pessimistic or sarcastic. If Cal shows any pessimism it seems to me it's entirely justified by the facts.

One of the great ironies of all this is that many of the same people who are first to express shock and outrage about Hitler's Holocaust and the horrific experiments of Dr. Mengele, enthusiastically support the "new" eugenics of abortion, euthanasia, cloning and stem cell research. Welcome to the "Brave New World."

[ohioWfan]

This is why pro-lifers favor returning to a uniform life ethic, covering the unborn, the handicapped, the elderly, racial and religious minorities, in short, all human life. Once one category of humanity is declared unfit to live — regardless of the reason — all others become at risk to the whims of society at a given moment.

In 1973 when the pre-born 'unwanted' were declared 'unfit to live' we began a slide down this treacherous slippery slope.

Will it ironically wake up the masses only because we have come to this unpleasant point in our decline where cloning is becoming an ugly reality? Will manufactured 'life' indeed be more repulsive to our society than the murder of millions of innocents?

We must all pray that, with a pro-life President, a Republican congress, and new conservative judges that a reversal to this evil in American society will occur.

Please Lord, may it be so!

[JulieRNR21]

We must all pray that, with a pro-life President, a Republican congress, and new conservative judges that a reversal to this evil in American society will occur.

AMEN BUMP

[marylina]

Amen and amen.

[Marysecretary]

AMEN, OhioWfan. If we don't, we're as bad as the Nazis who had no respect for life in any form unless you were Aryan. We do NOT want to go down that path...

[happymom]

Re: clones and souls.

I find it hard to believe that a cloned person would not have a soul; after all we already have in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and other "unnatural" forms of conception and no one doubts that those babies are born with a soul. However, I guess you have to wonder how far we can push it before we would indeed come up with an abomination so bad that God would refuse to put a soul in it.

For example, why bother with human mothers at all? It would be much more efficient to produce them en masse, a la Saruman's Uruk-Hai factory, than to do it one mother at a time. Also, if they were just being bred for body parts or stem cells, you wouldn't have to worry about miscarraiges or birth defects, you would harvest what you need and toss out the bad parts.

Or what about humans born to animal mothers (as in the Omen)? We are already producing genetically enmgineered animals with human genes to make organ transplants easier; do human-animal hybrids have a soul? How much human DNA does it take before it is recognized as having a soul or having human rights?

I think we are already at the bottom of the slippery slope; anything further will just be sucking us into the muck. Fortunately, only God can decide who has and hasn't a soul, I think the only safe course for us is to presume that they do, and do our best to protect them.

[ohioWfan]

I heard Rick Santorum on Fox News Sunday yesterday say that he was absolutely sure that a bill to ban partial birth abortion would get through the Senate this year.

THIS President will not veto it!! Praise the Lord!!

[Marysecretary]

That's wonderful news. It has to begin somewhere.

[Blue Collar Christian]

We as believers must continue to serve God even in the face of humiliation or death. I'm with you about assuming that clones would have souls and that we should protect them the same as any human. Does that mean killing abortion doctors and clone scientists? I think not. We can only influence the path of mankind through legal methods unless obeying the law is against God's law. We must always set a good example and glorify Him in what we do or say. God will deal with this mess in His time. The end times started with the 1st century, this corruption is all expected of evil man.
Still makes me sick, though.

[JulieRNR21]

Thanks for posting Santorum's remarks....had not had the chance to see FoxNews Sunday!

I was pleasantly surprised today to read 2 letters to the editor (on line) in a liberal MA newspaper....equating the evils of abortion, human cloning & destruction of stem cell embryos.