Absolutely Fabulous

Congratulations to Australia. The Federal Government passed the law allowing human embryo cloning for medical research. Yes, our medical scientists (who are some of the best in the world), now have a chance to play around with embryonic stem cells to hopefully work on cures for debilitating conditions like Parkinsons disease and cancers.

However I must admit, I am not an impartial observer on this issue. I have a disease (thankfully one that is chronic rather than fatal or debilitating) so I think any advancement that may one day eradicate this affliction is a pretty good thing. And it seems the vast majority of our elected politicians agree with me. And the rest of Australia. The vast majority of Australian citizens, and indeed world citizens want the cloning of embryo’s for medical research (a poll in smh.com.au had it at 80% of 3000 replies for the bill)

It is a loaded issue though. Just look at some of the arguments put up by John Howard and the politicians that voted against the bill.

John Howard (Liberal): " I think we live in an age where we have slid too far into relativism. There must be some absolutes in our society"

Kevin Rudd (Labor): "I find it difficult to support a legal regime which allows creation of a form of human life with the single purpose of allowing the conduct of experimentation"

Sophie Mirabella (Liberal): "Therapeutic cloning is a step in the wrong direction, a depraved practice reflecting nothing more than the turpitude’s of modern scientific egos in their race to the bottom of the ethics ladder"

You notice that a lot of these arguments are not based on the science but on the politician’s personal views. Which is about the usual. But I have to give John Howard credit on this on. In allowing the conscience vote, thus allowing all the members of his party to vote the way they want to, we see the best of our Parliamentary system. Instead of the leaders of the government making the decisions and the backbenches having to vote on party lines, bills that enjoy majority support (other than Liberal Party support) get a chance at getting passed. If only it was always like this.

But the focus of my missive today is the John Howard argument. "There must be some absolutes in our society". I will have to disagree with this one. As I get older, I start to realise that the idea of absolutes is a bit of a luxury. When you are a kid, you deal almost exclusively in absolutes. Stuff like, "Your family loves you", "Dad is indestructible" As you get older, and your knowledge increases, you realise that these are less clear. Sometimes Family members hurt each other. They may not mean to, but they do. Sometimes your Dad has a heart attack, not on purpose, but it happens. Even the Ten commandments (I’m a lapsed Catholic) are not immune to this. "Thou shall not kill" for example. Tell that to the soldiers protecting Australia during wartime. What about when protecting yourself and/or your family? Capital punishment, (which I am not a fan of, but does occur in the world), is another complex situation that does not have a simple answer. These are complex issues that have valid arguments for and against. They
demand better thinking than a flippant "That’s wrong because it is".

I am glad that the vote for Therapeutic Embryonic Cloning was subject to the same rigorous testing as the potential cures will be. It’s a victory for common sense and democracy.