Headlines 1-26-2009

Here are some important headlines at your disposal.

First, Bolivia is in the process of ratifying a new Constitution. This constitution is supposed to empower Bolivia's Indians. Preliminary vote counts estimate 60% of voters have approved the new Constitution. While the Constitution nationalizes much of Bolivia's natural gas resources and officially recognizes 36 indigenous groups, it is unclear exactly how the implementation of the law will work or how the new Constitution will affect Bolivia, facing a recent economic downturn. Xavier Albó, a Jesuit scholar and linguist, stated that "the new Constitution may be the equivalent of Spain’s Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors in 1492. But instead of the blood spilled in that process, Mr. Albó said, Bolivia is 'advancing in a democratic process that does not exclude or subjugate anyone."' For more information, please click here.

Secondly, Sri Lanken forces state that they have captured the last major base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers), a group well known for the use of suicide bombings and its own air force. A Sri Lanken military spokesman stated that there were no LTTE leaders captured in the operation while the LTTE has not yet commented on the report. The Sri Lanken military states that they have isolated the LTTE into an area of 155 square miles (about 400 sq. km.) and that the LTTE has approximately 1,000 fighters left after the group's political headquarters were captured on January 2. The leader of LTTE is thought to have fled to Malaysia. For the rest of the article, please click here.

Additionally, Esteghlal, one of Iran's top soccer clubs, held a soccer match between the club's female team and its youth male team. However, as the Associated Press reports, "the first mixed soccer game—females vs. males—since the 1979 Islamic revolution led to swift punishment... as an Iranian soccer club said it had suspended three officials involved and handed out fines of up to $5,000." While a coach and two managers initially denied that the match had taken place, video footage from cell phones was used as evidence against them. In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that women should and would be allowed to attend soccer games. However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (the final voice on all matters in Iran) disagreed, forcing Ahmadinejad to revoke his previous statement. For more information, please click here.

In domestic news, the FDA has approved a Californian biotechnology company, Geron, to begin the first-ever human clinical trials with embryonic stem cells. The participants will be patients who have recently suffered severe spinal cord injuries. Researchers are planning to inject the stem cells into the patients' spines and monitor carefully if the procedure is working. For more information, please click here.

In state-wide news, a gunman opened fire on an under-21 nightclub in Portland, Oregon, killing two and injuring several others. Police speculate that it was a random shooting. Among those injured were students, five from other countries. One victim is currently in critical condition, four others hospitalized but expected to live, and two were treated and sent home. The gunman is hospitalized in critical condition. For the article, please click here.

Devolution

The European Court of Human Rights might hear a case in which they will be asked to legally declare a chimpanzee to be a person.

A British animal rights activist wants to become the legal guardian of Matthew, a 26 year-old chimp, so that she can take care of him if the bankrupt animal sanctuary in Vienna, Austria, that is his home, is closed.

However, under Austrian law, only a human being can have a guardian. Austria's supreme court has upheld that law in this case.

But that's not stopping the Association Against Animal Factories, who filed the appeal in the European court on behalf of the chimp.

Why is this worth noting? I'll tell you.

In a recent post, I wrote about my objections to embryonic stem cell research, on the grounds that such research destroys human life. These are the same grounds on which I base my objections to abortion - I believe that upon the meeting of a sperm and egg, a human life is conceived, and cannot be aborted. However, not everyone agrees.

One roadblock to outlawing abortion is that many pro-choice activists argue that a fetus is not a human. In my opinion, a fetus conceived by two people cannot be anything else - it won't be anything else, regardless of how similar a human embryo might look to an embryo of another species. It is genetically programmed to develop into a human. But many refuse to label a fetus a human, so that it is easier to permit abortion.

My point is this: what sort of society have we become when we refuse to call our most vulnerable members human beings, whereas it is conceivable to fight for a chimpanzee to be given this distinction?

I want to cry.

I'll be keeping an eye on this case to see what develops. Hopefully, the European Court of Human Rights will maintain the same position as the Austrian supreme court. Only time will tell.

A Petition to Cure Diseases

I was riding my bike home from work last week when a man with a petition stepped in my path, forcing me to stop. "Do you have a moment? Just a moment for a petition! It's about stem cells."

I had been asked once before to "sign a petition to cure diseases." After seeing it was about legalizing stem cell research, I declined. This time, I wanted to make sure I knew what I was blowing off, so I started asking some questions about it.

Are they adult, umbilical, or embryonic, I wondered. I was told "they get them from the baby and from the mother." That didn't answer my question, so I asked to read the petition. The petitioner kept talking, trying to worm out of two questions now. I again asked for the petition to read it, and he said this:

"You can read all you want man, but I just explained it to you."

Damn right, I wanted to say! I'll read what I want (this is America, after all) and I'm not going to have you, a person I've just seen for the first time in my life, "explain" it to me. I have no reason to take your word, I would have liked to say. But there was no point in being antagonistic.

I saw it was indeed about legalizing embryonic stem cell research, to which I am vehemently opposed. One phrase caused me to stop and think, though, and that was the stipulation that embryos used in this research would be those that are not suitable for implantation (think of Snowflake Children) and would otherwise be discarded.

But this was more designed to appeal to an individual's distaste for waste, rather than his or her distaste for disrespect for human life. Clever.

I again declined to sign the petition. I have no problem with adult or umbilical stem cells, but creating an embryo - a human at one of its most basic and vulnerable stages - with a purpose that prevents it from doing what it is genetically programmed to do, destroys a life. (Yes, I believe an embryo is a life, but I'm not going to defend that belief right now).

This experience left me with this conclusion: What about curing social diseases, like this proposed biocannibalism? I understand why the argument is made that these embryos will otherwise be discarded. However, allowing such embryos to be used for stem cell research will only promote those enterprises which produce those embryos in the first place. Ending practices that create human life only for it to be destroyed will be much harder, if embryonic stem cell research is to become legal. I think most people who share my position - that embryos are indeed human life - would agree also that it is desirable to end practices that produce embryos that are ultimately to be destroyed.