Still Life With Stem Cells

Still Life With Stem Cells by Patricia Piccinini

I read this (and I highly recommend that you do as well), and I immediately thought of Unwind by Neil Shusterman.

Pretty much, that essay I linked you to, talks about stem cell research, and how the meaning of 'life' has changed: "In the last ten years, the body has gone from something that is uniquely produced to something that can be reproduced." (Patricia Piccinini)

Why does this make me think of Unwind? Well, I suppose you need to know the basic idea of that book before you can understand this blog post:

" From The Bill of Life: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively 'abort' a child... ...on condition that the child's life doesn't 'technically' end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called 'unwinding.' "
-Unwind, Neal Shusterman

Basically, when a teen is 'unwound,' he is harvested for his body parts, which are kept alive at all times, and donated to those who may need them... Every single part of him.

Now I realize how frightening close we really are to a reality that is that book. When reading that book, I was horrified at this process, ending a human life for use of others, and I'm sure many others who have read that book were horrified as well. But we nearly there! No, parents do not hand their teenage children over to the government. They do, however, take their children's lives and end them, horribly and gruesomely. Yes, I am talking about abortion.
Don't worry, I will not go into a lecture about why abortion is so wrong, and things like that.

Just one point I want to make:
In Unwind, a child's life is ended, his right to live taken from him, and his body parts were harvested for use of others.
Now, here, in the present, unborn babies are taken away their right to live, and embryonic stem cell research is currently going on.

The deceptions the general public in Unwind were fed: "If you unwind your child, his life may technically end, but his life will not have been in vain; he will save the lives of others.
Now replace 'unwind' with 'abort'.
Sound familiar?

The purpose of this post was not to try to convince you that abortion is bad. I do strongly disagree with it, and I hope that someday it will become illegal, but that was NOT the point of this post. I only wanted to share with you the horrible direction our society has already taken. Perhaps you must read the book to fully understand my feelings, and I strongly advise that you read it (it is extremely thought-provoking).
I just hope we realize where we are headed before it's too late.

Feel free to post your comments in the comment thread, but please be respectful of other people's opinions. And please note that I will only see comments if they are posted here. Livejournal or any other readers won't be visible to me. ;)