Who’s next?

The following is not a true story, but it could be very easily:

For 13-year-old Marta Schmitz,  neuro-cell research could someday save her life. Marta suffers from cancer, a disease once thought to only be treatable with radiation and chemotherapy, and which has a very high fatality rate. But the teen now believes that neuro-cell research could result in a cure for her cancer, and was encouraged by a vote in the Legislature approving a bill that would allow the groundbreaking research to proceed.

The measure would allow scientists to harvest certain plenipotent cells from the brains of genetic uniates for research and treatment into cures for cancer and other illnesses.

Some anti-research groups have protested the bill, saying that the research kills living beings. “We hear the nice bland term ‘genetic uniate,’ but what they’re really doing is killing one set of people to benefit another,” said Richard Deering of the group All Life is Precious. “Why should some people die so others may live?”

In 2010, the US Supreme Court ruled in the Hellas v. Massachusetts case that certain individuals that are genetically human would no longer be classified as persons under the law. They included anyone who was homeless for more than 3 years, certain illegal immigrants, mentally incapacitated patients, and others classed as “undesirable.” The following year, Congress passed the Uniate Designation Act, which put into place a set of tribunals for classifying who would be designated as a uniate. Now 30 years later, certain organizations that continue to reject the court’s decision object to conducting medical research on uniates.”

But Marta’s father, David, finds the opposition incomprehensible. “How could they look at my beautiful daughter, with her life ahead of her, and say that she has to die so that they can continue to hold that these uniates are people. Look, they aren’t doing anybody any good where they are in the camps anyway, so why don’t we do some good with them?”

Dr. Malcom Meneger of the Concord University Medical School agreed with David Schmitz. “Uniates only have the potential to be human beings, but they are not human persons per se. Yet they hold the potential to unlock cures for a host of illnesses that continue to plague humanity.”

“It’s always there,” said Marta, referring to her cancer. “You don’t get a break from it.” But the teen said she is hopeful that neuro-cell research can lead to a cure, and she testified before Legislature yesterday to that effect. She applauded the Legislature’s approval of the bill. “It’s really good because it gives me more hope for them to find a cure.”

Marta has spoken around the country about her fight with cancer and has received numerous volunteerism awards. She will be featured in an upcoming public television special about the neuro-cell research debate. “Marta is an amazing person,” said the show’s producer, Gillian Smith.

Sound far-fetched? Who would have believed 30 years ago that an American court could order the execution by starvation of an innocent, disabled woman, deemed by so many to have “little quality of life?” Who would have believed 50 years ago that we’d seriously be contemplating cloning unborn children in order to kill them for research? Who would have believed such atrocities could be wrapped up in nice sounding language about helping cute kids and the sadly ill?

Update: Because some people asked, I am the author of the satire above.