Paul McCartney's Misplaced Animal Rights Priorities
When Sir Paul McCartney's previous wife Linda died, he donated in her name to fight cancer and to PETA, in support of animal rights. It seemed to me this was donating at cross purposes, since if PETA gets its way, cancer research will be badly impeded.
Now, this opinion column in the London Times takes McCartney to task for caring more about abused animals in China (which is appalling to everyone) than abused and oppressed people.
Here is the key quote: "China imprisons and executes thousands of dissidents who dare to criticize the regime. Sixteen years after the protest in Tiananmen Square dozens of those arrested remain in prison. One man, Yu Dongyue, is still imprisoned for having thrown paint on the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square,an act of "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement" for which he was sentenced to 20 years.
Sir Paul and Lady Heather are so exercised by the plight of some cats and dogs that they will now refuse to travel to China, and are demanding a worldwide boycott of Chinese goods.
As for the imprisonment and judicial murder of thousands of dissident human beings, not a pip from either of them."
Definitely worth a read.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 12:06 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
And some evidence of experimentation and trading in organs and tissues from executed prisoners, political and non-political.
Perhaps this could resolve the dilemma of cancer research experiments for Sir Paul!!
I just checked the web site of the National Cancer Research Institute. Not a word about human-rights abuses in China. Shame on them! Of course, they are working to help humans in other ways. But this charge that activists who try to alleviate the suffering of non-humans must be indifferent to the suffering of humans is propagandistic nonsense. Yes, you can find exceptions, as with any issue. But take Peter Singer, for example. He gives away a large part of his personal annual income -- far more than you or I or 99% of people do -- to alleviate human suffering. Heather Mills, Paul McCartney's wife, devotes much of her time to helping those who, like herself, have lost limbs, and her Adopt-a-Minefield campaign has raised some $15 million to help rid the world of this scourge. Has Wesley J. Smith, or the writer of the Times article, or anyone reading this blog done nearly as much to help their fellow humans as these animal-rights activists have done? Not likely.
Well said Aeolus. A true "pro-life" philosophy should include respect for nature and other species.
China does a lot of bad things. You could fill a book listing them all.
For the record, I'm not sure why the author of this blog takes such a hard stance against animal rights while arguing embryonic stem cell is some Hitler-esque evil.
If you ask me, it's a slam dunk that animals should receive some rights given that they have brains, and can feel pain and emotion. Similarly, since a permanently frozen embryo leftover from IVF cannot breath, nor feel pain, has no brain....nor ever will, I think that deserves less rights than a fully developed human.
"In 2002 McCartney was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Amnesty International Media Spotlight Awards. The Award was given to the former Beatle for his consistent and passionate dedication to raising awareness on behalf of a number of critical social issues, including his work for Human Rights, landmine bans, animal rights and breast cancer research. The Media Spotlight Awards, presented by Amnesty USA, was established to honour, acknowledge, and encourage the contribution of courageous and principled journalists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, and actors who educate the public about Human Rights through their work."
http://www.artforamnesty.org/view_artist.php?id=20
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