Because . . . The game is Over

... C. Ward Kischer, Ph.D.

History has a way of preserving the truth.

No amount of parsing, no amount of rhetoric,

no amount of lies will ever change that.

Since 1989 I have written about the deliberate corruption of the science of Human Embryology by pundits, pols, clergy, lawyers, and even by some scientists. Over the years I have usually given a copy of my articles to a friend of mine whose life profession has been that of a salesperson. After reading my last article [Have They Never Heard Of Human Embryology?] he asked me: “Why don't these people cite Human Embryology when they write about life issues?”. My reply: “Because if they did, the game is over”, which is to say they would be acknowledging that the new individual human life

begins at first contact of the sperm with the oocyte; that pregnancy begins at that precise moment; that at that moment a new human life is not a part of the mother but a new human being; that the fate of that new human being is not couched in reproductive rights of the mother; that abortion kills that new individual human life; that embryonic cells are not embryonic stem cells; that the new individual human life is not “potential” but real.

Most of those who have been, and are, rewriting the history of Human Embryology are ignorant. The rest of them are simply arrogant, a prime example of which is Bill O'Reilly, the CEO of Fox Cable News, The O'Reilly Factor. For the past several years O'Reilly has referred to the human embryo and fetus as “potential” life. Within the past year he emphasized this again and declared “that is a fact”.

In the real world, a fact is a truth. There must be a time, a point, during development when life becomes real. That point is the first moment of conception when the sperm fuses with the oocyte. That moment initiates the continuum of life which continues until death, whenever that might be. O'Reilly has never understood that principal of the continuum. In O'Reilly's world he must deal with a “potential” life which at some time must become real. His selection of any point, or time, is arbitrary. O'Reilly is smart enough to know this. But, he is also smart enough to be arbitrary when no one is there to refute his arrogance. He is selective in choosing his letters to read and guests to confront. O'Reilly's arrogance is up front, confrontational yet protected by the mechanics of his program.

There is another kind of arrogance, which is hidden. It can be found, for example, in an Executive Order from President Barack Obama. This Executive Order is dated March 9th, 2009. The purpose of this Executive Order was, essentially, two-fold: 1. To make available federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, and, 2. To rescind two previous Executive Orders by then President George Bush, of August 9th, 2001 and June 20th, 2007, both of which restricted federal funds from supporting most human embryonic stem cell research. The reasons why the two previous Executive Orders were put into place are not discussed by President Obama. First and foremost, the main reason as to why the restriction was put into place was because human embryos were to be killed in order to obtain their human embryonic stem cells for experimentation. Human embryonic stem cells are presumably the cells from early human embryos, but they are wrongfully named. President Obama cites the hope and promise of scientific results from such experimentation, and also presents the case of Christopher Reeve (the original Superman of the movies, who broke his neck while horseback riding, became a paraplegic and later died), suggesting he might walk again from the benefits of research using human embryonic stem cells.

One of the things that the public should understand is that prior to and during the action of the restricting Executive Orders there was no restriction of research using private funds. In fact, several private firms were conducting research in which early human embryos were used as a source for embryonic stem cells. No useful, potentially therapeutic results have yet been obtained from those efforts.

Nowhere in President Obama's Executive Order is this mentioned nor that the source of these stem cells would be killed early human embryos. Nowhere is the hidden “game” mentioned. Indeed, if President Obama's source would have been the killing of early human embryos as a source for these cells, the “game” would be over. It would have been recorded for all of history that the killing of a life would have been used for human experimentation. History has already recorded that such has been done before, in the death camps of Nazi Germany.

4/28/12