March 10, 2009

Stem Cell Research: Society’s Got to Know Its Limitations

Today’s commentary on President Obama’s decree allowing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research arrives direct from Dirty Harry Callahan.

“A man’s got to know his limitations.”

It’s one of the few lessons I’ve absorbed (almost) from years of counseling addressing, among other peccadilloes, my “hero complex.” I need to be needed. No matter how big or small the task, or how tired or under pressure I am, I am compelled to ride in to the rescue.

But I’ve learned (kind of) that sometimes, even seemingly good things have to be allowed to go undone. Even when I’m the best or only person to do them.

Just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should. A man’s got to know his limitations.

Substitute “savior” for “hero,” and you have the fundamental psychological burden of the liberals. The heirs of generations of utopians, they believe that if government can do something even remotely good – create a job, rescue an impoverished single mother, protect a family from foreclosure, seize more power (oops, sorry) – then damn the torpedoes and the social consequences, full speed ahead!  

It wasn’t enough for them to elect a president. They needed to anoint The One.

Fund experiments on embryos? No-brainer, says their Leader, who proclaims: “At this moment, the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown, and it should not be overstated. But scientists believe these tiny cells may have the potential to help us understand, and possibly cure, some of our most devastating diseases and conditions. To regenerate a severed spinal cord and lift someone from a wheelchair. To spur insulin production and spare a child from a lifetime of needles. To treat Parkinson's, cancer, heart disease and others that affect millions of Americans and the people who love them.”

Save the next Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox or – hand over heart here, fellow conservatives – Ronald Reagan? Hey, my family history includes Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and prostate, lung and colon cancer. Save me!

And if, heaven forbid, America doesn’t make such “investments,” we’ll lose our “scientific leadership.” Or worse yet, laments the president: “Opportunities are missed. Promising avenues go unexplored.” Good things won’t get done.

What’s that you’re muttering, Harry?

Social conservatives have increasingly gotten off track as well in focusing on the questionable viability of embryonic stem cell research and the potential of adult stem cells. All well and good.

But let’s take the liberals at their word, and grant that research on embryonic stem cells “may have the potential” (note the Chief Savior’s careful double qualifier) to produce life-saving “miracles” some day.

Just because we can do something, it doesn’t mean we should. Society’s got to know its limitations, too. And throughout the ages, the brightest of bright lines was – no experimenting on human life.
 

We can only begin to imagine the potential consequences of crossing that line, but Obama highlighted one in pledging to “ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction.” Because it’s “dangerous” and “profoundly wrong.”

Your Highness, you just opened that door wide enough to drive the Change You Can Believe In campaign bus through.

A “slippery slope” argument, you say? Ahem. We’re already halfway down that slide – one we hopped on when a court declared life outside the womb more valuable than life inside it – and gaining speed by the second. Faster than you can say Roe v. Wade, you’ll hear the same life-saving and “balance” claims for cloning that Obama just made for stem cells.

Meanwhile, even as stem cell research stocks soar (finally! something our president actually stimulated!), those who press this “false choice between sound science and moral values” are certain to be ridiculed and persecuted. Well, I have a “commentary” on that, too.

Go ahead. Make my day.