For those who don’t wish to click the link, here’s the important bit:
DOBSON: You know, the thing that means so much to me here on this this issue [embryonic stem cell research] is that people talk about the potential for good that can come from destroying these little embryos and how we might be able to solve the problem of juvenile diabetes. There’s no indication yet that they’re gonna do that, but people say that, or spinal cord injuries or such things. But I have to ask this question: In World War II, the Nazis experimented on human beings in horrible ways in the concentration camps, and I imagine, if you wanted to take the time to read about it, there would have been some discoveries there that benefited mankind. You know, if you take a utilitarian approach, that if something results in good, then it is good. But that’s obviously not true. We condemn what the Nazis did because there are some things that we always could do but we haven’t done, because science always has to be guided by ethics and by morality. And you remove ethics and morality, and you get what happened in Nazi Germany. That’s why to Senator [Senate Majority Leader Bill] Frist [R-TN] and the others who are saying, “Look what may be accomplished.” Yeah, but there’s another issue, there’s a higher order of ethics here.
There’s a rule used wherever people debate on the internet called “Godwin’s Law.” It states that the longer a debate becomes, the greater the probability of someone comparing the other side to Nazis or Hitler. At this point, it is generally held, the person who made the comparison has lost.
Now, sometimes the comparison may be valid, but I do not feel that this is one of them. Let’s compare a few things:
–The Nazis’ basic goal was to kill people. They used some inventive methods to do this, but the fundamental goal was death.
–The goal of embryonic stem cell research is to save lives.
–The Nazis deliberately hurt and frightened people before and while killing them.
–Embryos as young as those stem cell research uses cannot feel pain or fear, even if there were a desire to inflict these things upon them.
–The Nazis murdered people who otherwise might have lived long and full lives.
–The embryos used in stem cell research would be destroyed anyway.
Why did I never notice the resemblance between the two before?
