Of Nazis and Stem-Cells

David Gelernter, in the Wall Street Journal, takes James Dobson to task for comparing stem-cell researchers to Nazis in Dobson's Choice. Sayeth Gerlernter ...

Last week, James Dobson of Focus on the Family proved that he lacks sufficient control to be pitching in the major leagues of public discussion and ought to be sent back to the minors. He compared embryonic stem cell research to Nazi death-camp experiments. I too (and millions of others) oppose broadened federal funding for stem-cell research, but Dr. Dobson has damaged rather than helped this cause. He has made conservatives look bad by suggesting that some are just as incapable of moral distinctions as the Howard Dean left--and just as unable to treat their opponents like human beings and not wicked moral dwarfs.

Dobson has a response to the hubub, though not specifically to this article, on his site here ... quote! ...

He (Dobson) said the original comment -- "Experimentation on the blastocytes, which are fertilized eggs, has a Nazi-esque aura to it" -- was being taken out of context by those who support embryonic stem-cell research.

More from Gerlernter ...

Meanwhile, those who popped up on cue to demand an immediate Dobson apology--such Jewish groups as the Anti-Defamation League, political groups like ProgressNow.org and many individuals--look silly and childish. Rarely has one wild pitch knocked so many people on the head. Thank you, Dr. Dobson; you can sit down now.

Props to Mr. Gerlernter for calling the apology seekers out. I also like the baseball analogy. To continue it, sometimes a tough pitcher needs to give the opposing hitter some chin music. This, in my view, is all Dobson did. A prophet who calls a spade a spade (mixed metaphor alert!) is not always -- in fact, is almost never -- popular. If creating human beings to experiment on them, and eventually destroy them, isn't immoral, then what is? Though Gerlernter makes some other interesting points ... quote! ...

Dr. Dobson's analogy is grotesque. It's not just that embryos (as he himself noted later) feel no pain when they are destroyed. Not just that they leave no grief-stricken survivors in the sense that full-fledged human beings do, and rip no comparable hole in the community and the universe when they are murdered. Just as important is the gaping difference in the actors' motives. Stem-cell researchers want to help "mankind," defined to exclude embryos. Nazi experimenters wanted to help "mankind," defined to exclude Jews. If the first definition is wrong, it might nonetheless be proposed by morally serious persons. No morally serious person would go anywhere near the second, which epitomizes Nazi evil.

I suppose we could argue about what Dobson meant by "Nazi-esque" (did he really say Nazism and stem cell research were moral equivalents?) ... but I guess we're a bit beyond that. First, is feeling pain a criteria for moral outrage? So, an anesthetized murder victim has no right to complain? Second, they are not mourned by loved ones or society at large. This says far more about the moral bankruptcy of our society than the embryos themselves. Then, stem cell researchers are doing it all to help mankind. Really? You could make a profound case that they are doing it for personal glory. Or greed. Or accolades. Or good, ol' fashioned ego. But, let's even set that aside for a moment. Certainly, there has been plenty of evil undertaken for the "good of mankind." Finally, the point about a "morally serious person" ... as defined by whom? When man creates his own morality the result is things like Nazism, and other things.