19 January 2003
By
Fr. Michael Dolan
This week’s article: “Capitalistic Cannibalism!”
Erwin Chargaff was a giant in the field of biochemistry in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. In a recent interview he said, “Research always runs the risk of getting out of control.” He called what is going on today in the broad field of biological research, “capitalistic cannibalism” by which he meant that research undertakings are no longer significantly influenced or directed by ethical standards, but by the prospect of monetary gain. If it’s marketable, that’s all that matters. In large measure his insight is true. Certainly, abortion-on-demand would be rare indeed if they were done free of charge because the abortionist cared only for the real “threat to the mother’s health” rather than for the money it puts in his or her pocket. An interesting situation came to light recently where a researcher has refrained from publishing her data in the medical literature because she is first going to apply for a patent. I’ll tell you what she is trying to patent later, because it could significantly impact human cloning.
Speaking of cloning, the Senate, aided and abetted by a number of our Catholic Senators, is trying to push through human cloning which has been rejected by the House and condemned by the Church. The most recent Senate amendment to allow therapeutic cloning stipulates that it would be unlawful for anyone to engage in a human cloning procedure (by implanting it in the woman’s womb) for the purpose of creating a cloned human being. Given that loopholes seem to be the lifeblood of the less than scrupulous, I see at least two loopholes in the amendment. First, the fetus is not considered by the Supreme Court to be a human being, and therefore, cloned gestation could go on for many months before being purposely terminated and yet be within the letter of the law. The second loophole is that artificial wombs involving laboratory incubation devices are no longer hypothetical, but are now here.
A researcher at a Tokyo university reported a breakthrough in the medical literature whereby a goat fetus was successfully incubated for three weeks “followed by a trial birth” from an artificial womb. Another researcher at Cornell University’s Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility “successfully” implanted a “left over” human embryo into an artificial womb for six days before “halting” the experiment. The next step is to let the experiment go for fourteen days to see how closely the natural development process is mimicked within the artificial womb. Her work is unpublished pending the award of a patent. Estimates are that the capability of sustaining a baby through the entire nine-month gestational period in some sort of laboratory device will be a reality in a few years. More about that at another time. For now you, and only you, have the voices and the votes—be quiet and it will happen, be outraged and it will stop.
May God bless you always,
Father Mike
Next Week: “What is Truth?”