There are questions answered by moral principles that do not change. Then there are questions with answers than vary from one situation to another. Both kinds can become politicized. The Church has something to say about moral questions, whether they have been politicized or not.
In every age, there are some who contradict and challenge unchanging moral principles. That’s dangerous, because morality is one of the few things that separates human beings from animals. Then again, some human beings seem to think they are no more than animals. Contradictors notwithstanding, morality exists, and humans are not animals.
Abortion is a focal point of controversy about the value of human life. Advocates consider the choice of the “mother” more important than the identity of the “fetus” as a human being. (Can you be a mother without a child?)
On the abortion side of this cultural divide are advocates for embryonic
stem cell research. That’s research into stem cells taken from living
human embryos, resulting in the death of those embryos. Advocates claim
that embryonic stem cells are potentially more useful than kinds which
are not harvested through the death of a human embryo. That claim is
dubious. What’s more, there have been thousands of over 100 successful “miracle
treatments” resulting from research into the other kinds of stem cells,
while embryonic stem cell research has consumed millions of dollars
without the same any happy endings.
You may recall celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve beating
the drum and pulling heart strings for embryonic stem cell research.
Ironically, there have now been successful, documented treatments for
Parkinson’s, paralysis, heart damage, and other problems from adult
stem cells, and nothing at all from embryonic stem cells. Yet even if
embryonic stem cells were promising, that could never justify the genocide
necessary to harvest them.
Now, the executive branch of the American “Federal” government will be adding my tax dollars to the millions of private dollars pouring into the bloody black hole of embryonic stem cell research. (Sorry if that sounds bitter. I’m just trying to state the facts. If the facts sound morally wrong, then perhaps they are.)
The nation’s halls of power may be given over to those who want to kill innocent human lives, but the truth is still out there. The Bill of Rights is still respected just enough that the truth can be expressed by citizens like me, and reported in places like The Washington Times. If world history is an accurate measure, then America’s slide into socialism — even under our friendly version of fascist principles — will finally suppress such free expressions. But for now, the truth is still out there.