According to a recent story out of Washington, on the urging of Nancy Reagan Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has revived a bill to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research, despite the fact that President George Bush still promises to veto such legislation if it passes both houses.
Frist Abandons Principle
The bill would allow the government to pay for human embryonic stem cell research, which the story says “70 percent of Americans support.” The bill, already passed in the House, has stalled in the Senate.
So Nancy Reagan reportedly urged Senator Frist to try to advance the bill. Frist had originally opposed government funding of embryonic stem cell research, but even after admitting that the use of these embryos destroys a human life, has agreed to work for passage of the bill in the Senate.
It must be extremely uncomfortable to live absent of sound moral principles and firm beliefs on which to base one’s actions. Embryonic stem cell experimentation, however, even if it might present some medical advantages someday, destroys an innocent human life.
The principle is found in the natural law that assures us of the value of human life, and the Divine Positive law that spells out the consequences of defying the law. “Thou shall not murder,” is not a suggestion, it is a commandment, promulgated by God. It is a natural law also—written in our hearts.
Nancy Reagan is wrong to urge Bill Frist to push for such legislation, and Frist is wrong if he listens to her urgings.
Buffett and Gates: Philanthropists or Misanthropists?
Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, Head of Human Life International, and good friend of the League, said the philanthropic merger of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both billionaires, may spell doom for families in the developing world, with these billionaires’ support of Planned Parenthood and their international birth control programs.
Earlier Buffett had given two million dollars to fund trials of RU-486, the French Abortion Pill. The Gates foundation is a patron of reproductive health programs and funds research on new contraceptive technologies and initiatives to “improve” access to birth control. Buffett has just turned over the bulk of his $44 billion to Gates for so called philanthropic causes.
Euteneuer said, “Buffett will be known as the Dr. Mengele of philanthropy, unless he repents.” The Associated Press reporter seemed nonplussed that pro-lifers weren’t all aglow over the Buffett-Gates merger.
Arkansas Judge Imposes Own Law on Children
Lack of moral principles can also be damaging to third parties, such as children. A court in Arkansas has told lawyers representing supporters of the state’s pro-family law, that it is discrimination to prevent gay couples from being foster parents. The high court made up some principles out of thin air, struck down the law that foster parents should be a man and wife, and imposed the newly invented law on unwary children.
“Being raised by homosexuals doesn’t cause gender identity problems, and there is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children in a homosexual environment,” the judge pontificated. The judge’s guess is the new law in Arkansas. It’s that simple. State laws are now made by judges, not by the legislature. Poor kids.
Hope Springs Eternal This Fourth
We’re in trouble from many sides in this country. Swimming in immorality, pornography, contraception, abortion, you name it. Can you believe how low we have sunk as a society this Fourth of July, 2006, just 230 years since the first Fourth? There is surely much work to be done.
But maybe we’ve finally hit the bottom of the scum bucket, down where the crawley things are, and can start rising above all this dirt and damnation. So have a nice Fourth,. remember God is merciful and that hope springs eternal.
