covici@ccs.portal.com (John Covici) (01/08/91)
Index Number: 12659
Below is more evidence on the increased push for Euthanasia and what always
goes along with it eugenics. Reference is made to a Philadelphia Inquirer
editorial in the text below; I can get the text if desired, although it is
pretty obvious what they are after.
Dec. 31 (EIRNS)--RESEARCHERS TARGET CHILDREN WITH "DEFECTIVE
GENES" IN NEW TESTS OF EMBRYOS--Researchers at the Howard Jones
Fertility Institute at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in
Norfolk are about to start a new study which tests 3-day old
embryos for "defective genes," such as Tay-Sacks, Down's
Syndrome, sickle cell anemia, muscular dystropy, and cystic
fibrosis. Although the study is to be restricted to serious
diseases, the tests raise the spectre of families eliminating not
only those future children that are "genetically inadequate" but
also those whose sex or hair color do not comply with their
picture of a perfect child.
The Washington Post article reporting the study admits the
new technology may well lead to eugenics. Currently, the "search
and destroy" method involves testing a 3-month old fetus through
amniocentesis. Couples then kill through abortion any pre-born
child they reject at this stage. With the new technology, a dozen
eggs will be fertilized and each of them tested for genetic
traits at the 3-day stage. Only the one with the genetic make-up
the parents like the best is implanted.
As one researcher stated, "This whole business seems to
treat human reproduction as something analogous to building a
car... It turns human reproduction into a technology more and
more divorced from human intimacy and human relationships." There
is no way respect for future human life can remain intact with
the wholesale destruction of thousands of rejected embryos.
Besides the eugenic plan couples may implement, we can
expect an explosion of law suits against physicians when a less
than "perfect" child is born. Also, there is no doubt that the
technology will be part of what every insurance company will
insist upon before they allow coverage of newborns--given the
cost-savings involved in rejecting coverage of children with
chronic problems.
The new technology utilizes two recent developments: 1) PCR
or polymerase chain reaction which allows researchers to use as
little as one cell's worth of DNA, and copy it to produce the
thousands of cells needed for the genetic tests; and 2) the
ability to remove one cell from an embryo without damageing any
of the other cells. The researchers wiil use the same method they
use on mice and monkeys--extrusion, in which a hollow needle
punctures the embryo to suck one of the cells out.
PHILA INQUIRER CONTROVERSY CONTINUES;
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST BLASTS PRO-EUGENICS STAND
Below is an excerpt from a syndicated column in the Philadelphia
Daily News by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, denouncing the
Philadelphia Inquirer's stand on eugenics, in terms similar to
those used by the Schiller Institute in its response to the
Norplant editorial. The Op Ed was published in the Daily News
Dec. 31:
Title: "Race, Contraception, and Poverty--Basic premise of that
editorial was reprehensible"
"... But then, given the general moral decline of the country,
perhaps the Inquirer's idea was just slightly ahead of its time.
After all, our nation already allows abortion on demand, pulls
feeding tubes from 'hopeless cases' like Nancy Cruzan (who died
Wednesday) and promotes 'living wills', so doctors may be free of
lawsuits as they end lives, not preserve them. Under these
morally bankrupt circumstances, how long will it be before
contraceptives are forced on welfare recipients of whatever
color?...
"If this sounds disturbingly similar to the thinking of those
who created the Third Reich, it should. It was this attitude
that led to the destruction not only of the German handicapped,
but ultimately the unwanted unborn of Eastern Europe and the
Jews. A 1943 report noted that the decree pertaining to
'interruptions of pregnancy' was considered 'a safety measure for
the German people' because 'the high birth rate of female Eastern
workers and female Poles represented a biological weapon against
the German people.'
"According to a letter addressed to the Reich Commissioner for
the Strengthening of Germanism, the designation 'undesirable
population increase' provided the basis for forcing abortions on
workers at Auschwitz.
"When an individual's value is determined by his or her
income, we have departed from the Jeffersonian ideal of 'endowed'
rights to a form of eugenics that Planned Parenthood founder
Margaret Sanger dreamed would come to pass." Gary.Warren@f5.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Gary Warren) (04/16/91)
Index Number: 14945
Excuse me, but I would regard anything that Cal Thomas, who was the
chief propagandist for Jerry Falwell before the teleevangelist scandals
of the late eighties, says about anything as being more than a little
suspect.
Just my opinion.
glw
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