A few months ago, a pro-life group wrote to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington that researchers at Jesuit-run Georgetown university were using cells from aborted children. McCarrick wrote back at the beginning of January, saying, “I have had this matter thoroughly investigated and I am pleased to tell you that Georgetown Medical Center’s Tissue Culture Bank is now well aware of the moral problems concerning use of certain cell lines and research involving tissue culture.” Notice carefully what he’s saying. He didn’t say that they were changing their practice to do the moral thing, only that they were aware.
As Paul Harvey says, now we have the rest of the story. The university’s biolethicists, including a Catholic priest, say that “the benefits to society outweigh the harm done by using the cells”log/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fbettnet.dyndns.org%2Fblog%2Fcomments.php%3Fid%3D2546_0_1_0_C">a thread below. You might find it interesting reading, if only to understand this particular mindset.
Tim,
If you think the President spends his vacation like the rest of us who have jobs, you really need to get a clue. Even during his vacations, the president receives daily national security briefings, meets with his political advisers, and meets with visiting foreign dignitaries. The White House travels with the president.
The big difference is that when he’s away from Washington, he doesn’t have to meet with lawmakers and bureaucrats to massage egos and do the grip-and-grin with Eagle Scouts and the like. Much of the ceremonial work of the office can be put off safely.
So does Howard Dean not take vacations? If this is the best you can come up with, try again. By the way if Bush spent 75 percent of his time on vacation, he’d still be a better choice than pro-abortion Dean.
Dean’s plan “included expansion of health care access for teens”
This is a code word for condoms and abortions….Did not see the word “abstinence.”
Sure, you can lower the rate of teens having babies by just killing them.
Tim,
You assert that Bush is going to appoint a pro-abortion justice. That’s some crystal ball you have since no one knows who Bush is going to appoint. It’s never been announced. Is this what you consider debate? You assert things without providing evidence to back them up? Keep repeating the same argument that’s been refuted?
Once again, it is never permissible to advocate the use of artificial contraception. The Church has been very clear on this. It is not the government’s role to do this. As a philosophy major I assume you’ve heard that “the end does not justify the means.” I really do believe that telling teens that they can’t control themselves, that they’re not better than unthinking animals, that they should just go ahead and do spiritual and emotional harm to themselves by engaging in premarital is not the answer to teen pregnancy.
What’s preferable is teaching them that they should not use others as sexual objects or allow themselves to be used as such. It is preferable to teach them personal responsibility. That’s the difference between the conservative and liberal view. Liberals like you always want someone else to make the problem go away, whether it’s teen pregnancy or abortion.
Finally, the reason that the Church’s social teaching is not mentioned is because there are legitimate differences of opinion on how to implement it within the Church’s teaching, unlike with abortion where there is only one acceptable position.
Oh, and one web site’s lack of information is not evidence of anything. Maybe the web site is just incompetent. Surely you can do better than that. So pathetic. Maybe you should go to graduate school to keep honing your debate skills.
Tim I can tell that you don’t know or care that one of the biggest reasons TX has such a HIGH teen pregnancy rate it that they have ONE of the BIGGEST adoption agency’s in the country. But gee that could not have a thing to do with it could it ? That’s just a scheme to cover up for GW’s failure’s RIGHT.
Morning after pills, RU-486 and the like are abortificants. Has Dean denied promting the use of these? Free and easy access to artificial birth control increases sexuality activity by teens.
What doesn’t get discussed by the MTV crowd and the Deaniacs is the STD epidemic currently spreading across younger people. Oh, no AIDS, my friends: Genital Warts which can be carried by men on parts of their anatomy not covered by condoms (I’ll leave the details to the imagination and the medical books.)
Dean was on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood. No Catholic should support him.