"Scott Seidman" wrote in message
. 1.4...
Peter Charles wrote in

Here's another example that I've pondered over myself. Jews tend to
place a high regard on sending a dead body back to its maker in the same
condition it was given to them. That's why, after a suicide bombing,
some of the first on the scene are canvassing the sites for pieces of
flesh, to make sure they're buried with the right body, or waiting for
the survivors in the ground when they get buried. In any case, because
of the way the dead are treated, orthodox Jews are not organ donors.
Now, people die, and fairly often, waiting on the list for a transplant
donor. Is the witholding of organs by these people "religious tyranny"?
Well, others are certainly free to donate organs, nobody is stopping
them. Nobody is trying to put an end to transplantation either. Yet,
the fact remains, for every orthodox Jew that would make a good organ
donor that dies, that's a few organs that won't ever make it to the
transplant list.


This is an apples and oranges example compared to the stem-cell research
topic. While Jews are not organ donors, they do not active fight others from
being organ donors, or try to quench research into how to make organs more
acceptable to the recipient. They let others do research, and the public
benefits from the research. I can support someone who does not go into stem
cell research because they feel its religiously immoral, but not people who
block the benefits of others doing that research.

I agree that its hypocritical for someone who actively opposed stem cell
research to express their sympathies for the death of Chris Reeve (not for
them to say what a valiant fighter or true hero he was, that's different).
But to have actively resisted the research that might have cured him, and
then bemoan the sadness of his ailment is like seeing someone fall
overboard, pulling the safety ring away from them each time they reached for
it until they drown, then claiming it is so sad that they drowned.

BTW: I heard that Bush waivered on his anti-stem cell stance when it came
out that Ronnie might benefit from it (or else right after he died), but he
couldn't just open the floodgates because of the religious right. So he
found the middle ground.

--riverman