Tag Archives: ethics

Dr. Paul May Do Harm

On 21 May 2008, “Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008” became law. Essentially, the act prohibits health insurance companies from denying coverage to someone with negative genetic makeup. This law is good legislation since it guarantees that everyone has the opportunity to enroll in or buy into health insurance to help improve or save peoples’ lives no matter what their genes may predispose them to.

If the legislation did not pass, many people with genetic issues would have to live without health insurance or live on the emergency room system (the general public). In addition, parents with children with negative genetic makeup would be forced to drop their children off their insurance. Some parents would probably even be forced to abort their children so they (the parents) could have insurance. (So much for safe and rare.)

97% of the US House voted for the Act. Ron Paul, a doctor, was part of the 3% who voted against it. Why would a doctor vote against it? Yes, with this Act the government is interfering in private industry, but with life and death issues, the government must intervene.

FD has suggested to me that the Act may be seen as another affirmative action law. I disagree in part. Yes, it says that the disadvantaged gets special treatment; in affirmative action law, minorities get to get into college. However, with the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, the disadvantaged get to live. Insurance companies should not dictate that part of society at large must die to win a heavy bottom line (with blood).

What do you think of the Act? Why do you think Dr. Paul voted against it? (I thought he was OTAAC, or pro-life.)

Succor of the masses?

The thing about Nietzschian ethics is, it’s no an easy path. People like to talk big, and brag about how rough and tough they are, but the truth is that the path to the overman is not an easy one to walk. It requires much self-sacrifice and denial. Part of that is recognizing the traps that others fall into and avoiding them. The overman must overcome base temptation.

I still want a chocolate Easter bunny. They’re on clearance at the Wal-Greens for like $1.00! But no, that would be partaking of commercial religion, and of course we all know what a no-no that is. So Nietzsche says I have to walk by, and not get a bunny, and isn’t that just fine for him? I bet he bought the stupid Easter clearance when nobody was looking. It’s 90% off. They’re practically giving it away! But of course I passed it by like the sap that I am, because that’s what a good little overman is supposed to do. And all I can say is, this whole overman thing better be worth it, or I swear to God I am going to be seriously pissed.

Chocolate bunny…

Concerns about Huckabee

I at first found Mike Huckabee to be an interesting character, as a possible bright point in the dismal lineup of presidential candidates. Unfortunately, his character did not bear up well when I looked at him further, and I’m sorry to see that some bloggers like Rod Dreher still think he’s a viable politician or sign of a genuine movement. This post is to show evidence that Mr. Huckabee would be a poor president.

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Feminists for Life in Oakland!

Feminists for Life speaker Karen Shablin will be speaking at the William Pitt Union this Thursday:


Karen Shablin
“Abortion: A Betrayal of Feminism”
7:00 PM
Thursday, November 29, 2007
William Pitt Union, Kurtzman Room
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

From the biographical sketch linked above, I see that Ms Shablin was a former NARAL member and had an abortion herself. This is the first time one of the new members of the FFL speaker’s bureau has come to Pittsburgh, so it should be very interesting.

If you live elsewhere–namely Kentucky, Maryland or North Carolina–there are other speaking events held in the future by FFL listed here.

Skin Cells induced to become embryonic-like cells

We now know more of the reason why Ian Wilmut left the human cloning research behind. Researchers from two labs (Yamanaka in San Fran. and Japan, Thomson in Madison)  have induced mature somatic cells to become embryonic-like stem cells, matching all the experimental criteria for embryonic stem cells. This new class of stem cells is called an inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). Both labs created these cells by using viruses to express key genes in the somatic cells.

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