My Predictions for 2009 in Bioethics
Each year the Center for Bioethics and Culture asks me to prognosticate about the coming year. This year, that duty is painful. I believe we are entering dark days. But it is my job to call them as I see them without honey coating. (This is an abridged version. For more details read the original article.) I predict:
Biotechnology:I have been asked privately why I would be so publicly pessimistic, even if realistic, in this prediction. The worry is that people might get discouraged. Perhaps, but I hope it will wake people up! I am so tired of hearing, "It can't happen here," that the time has come for all to understand that not only can it happen here, it is happening now. It is now or never to defend the ramparts!
-- The Bush Embryonic Stem Cell Funding Policy is Toast...
-- The Amount of Federal Funding of Human ESCR Will Remain Roughly the Same...
-- New Federal Law Will Explicitly Legalize Therapeutic Cloning...
-- The Federal Government Will Not Fund Human Cloning in 2000;
Assisted Suicide:
-- Washington Assisted Suicide Will Quickly Seem Routine...Any abuses or problems that come to light in WA, will, as in Oregon, be ignored by state authorities and go mostly unreported by the media.
-- The Montana Supreme Court will Create a Constitutional Right to Assisted Suicide...
-- At Least One State Legislature Will Vote to Legalize Assisted Suicide: Look for Hawaii, California, and/or Vermont to legalize assisted suicide through the legislative process.
Miscellaneous:
-- Abortion: The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA)--which would erase all state laws limiting abortion--will be fought tooth and tong by the pro life movement. It will not pass in 2009...
-- Conscience Clauses:...The Bush Administration passed a regulation at the end of his term protecting such dissenting health care workers from being discriminated against in employment for hearkening to the call of conscience. Look for this rule to be overturned by the Obama Administration, or overturned by legislation...
-- Human Exceptionalism: Timing is uncertain, but look for the European Court of Human Rights to declare that chimpanzees are legal persons in Europe, perhaps this year, but almost certainly by the end of 2010...
-- Futile Care: Texas will not rescind its law legalizing medical futility in 2009...
-- Biological Colonialism: Alas, despite legal attempts to restrict the exploitation of the world's destitute for their body parts, biological colonialism (such as buying organs), will increase in 2009.
If you'd also like to listen to my predictions, check out the current edition of my podcast, What It Means to Be Human and you can download it into your MP 3.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:27 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
>Human Exceptionalism: Timing is uncertain, but look for the European Court of Human Rights to declare that chimpanzees are legal persons in Europe, perhaps this year, but almost certainly by the end of 2010...<
How long do you think before the sacrament of marriage between chimpanzees and human are legalized?
I hear ya! I'm not sure about Europe but maybe they might have a better chance in your Canada! Did not the majority of your provinces already legalize same-sex-marriages?
Ok! We won't have anymore talk like that sinner vic!
Forgive me for speaking out! :)
It's a worse worry that people get dead than that they get pessimistic.
Apparently life isn't worth what it once was. I'm annoyed beyond belief by my fellow humans. I've declared my cat smarter than the majority of people. She at least responds to her natural instincts like a cat should, instead of trying to force herself to act like something else. She doesn't lessen herself to a mouse.
I hope people will not be discouraged. Whenever I am feeling down about the state of the world, I remember a couple of things: It could always be worse, similar things have happened before and been overcome, and that you need to appreciate the simpler blessings and successes. Sometimes discouragement can be powerfully motivating if you refuse to surrender. Here's two favorite quotes of mine about bad times:
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!”- Rocky Balboa
"Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill
Thanks for being honest Wesley; I think it does far more good than sticking one's head in the sand!
I believe my state of Virginia also has a medical futility law, the only state other than Texas and there is no bill to rescind it filed for this General Assembly session.
I wouldn't have expected that of Virginia any more than I would have of Texas. What is going ON?
re: assisted suicide - it comes right in w/ nationalized "health care" (I call it death care). How else do they pay for it? You, sir, are an optimist.
PS: I read your book on euthanasia several years ago; it is THE resource I recommend.
I think FOCA does get passed and I for one will fight it tooth and nail. The conscience clause goes with it. Keep fighting; you are one of the Watchmen on the Walls.
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