In the 1858 Illinois Senate race, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had a series of seven debates. In the seventh and final debate on October 15^th, 1858 in Alton Illinois, Lincoln said the following;

That is the real issue. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles - right and wrong - throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it” . . . or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.

In this day and age, what is Slavery and do we recognize it when we see it?

Is it the wanton destruction of millions of Fetal-Americans a year so that certain people can choose not to be inconvenienced by the realities inherent in their reproductive systems and the consequences of their own behavior?

Or perhaps it is too hard to call that slavery in a Classical Sense, because no one is specifically profiting from the enslavement of the Fetus in America - unless of course you count the hundreds of Millions of Dollars per year that Planned Parenthood and others earn from “Clinical Procedures”

Perhaps slavery might be trying to use those same unwanted embryos to allow Pharmaceutical Companies to research and possibly develop cures for various human ailments? There wouldn’t be any money in that would there?

Lincoln spoke of one person toiling and working so that another can profit from their efforts, and truly in the 1850’s, that was the definition of Slavery. Now, it seems that we have improved upon the concept of Slavery to the point that we can so subjugate another as to deny them life itself and yet half the Country is unwilling or unable to see it for what it is. This is Slavery perfected.

How much more craven will we be if we allow Pharmaceutical Companies, Medical Researchers and those who feel that their own selfish personal medical wants or needs outweigh all other moral or ethical considerations, to profit by denying others the same right to life that was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence itself and that they achieved solely through their own birth.

In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court found that the fourteenth amendment guaranteed a “fundamental right” to an abortion, but then went on to set stages at which the state was allowed to regulate or even proscribe abortion in order to promote “its interests in the potentiality of human life” This the Supreme Court did using such precise legal phrases as “approximately”, “appropriate medical judgment” and “viability” which was further defined as “the interim point at which the fetus becomes viable, that is, potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid.”

First of all, It is arguably one of the greatest ironies of modern history that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which a hundred years later needed to be twisted by the Supreme Court into the semblance of a pretzel to equate the right to privacy with the right to destroy an unborn Human was sandwiched between quite possibly the two greatest amendments to the Constitution after the Bill of Rights; the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished Slavery; and the Fifteenth Amendment which guaranteed the right to vote without regard to race. It is, however an irony that I would be better able to appreciate if it wasn’t resulting in the premature death of over a million Fetal Americans each and every year.

Secondly, there is only one thing more ludicrous than nine lawyers with life appointments trying to tell the rest of us when life begins, and that is the rest of us spending the next 30 years trying to understand exactly what “viability” is, with medical advances taking viability inexorably back towards conception, a fact that is being mostly ignored in the debate, whilst science simultaneously pushes the envelope on all the wonderful things that we can have if we are only prepared to ignore the ethical implications of our actions.

After all, the cold scientific reality of the 1970’s was one where it could never have been conceived that medical advances might eventually turn the very concept of viability against those who had first advanced it as an argument for Abortion, having not realizing how much of a double-edged sword it could be if science became sufficiently advanced.

Now we have stem cell research promising miracle “cures” for every disease under the sun. I can’t help but be reminded of the Carpetbaggers after the Civil war who sold “snake oil” promising to cure everything from weariness to rheumatism to turgidity of the bowels to open wounds.

Last I checked, however, in the entire history of mankind, no medicine invented by man has ever “cured” anything. Drugs don’t “cure”, they “treat” and this is hardly a semantic difference. By definition, if you have a cure, there will come a time when you no longer need it.

Treatment, however, is the gift that keeps giving. I suppose that in theory with today’s wonder drugs, you get better (or perhaps you just don’t get worse), but with treatment, Pharmaceutical Companies get to perpetually generate revenues in excess of 3 to 5 Billion Dollars per year per brand name drug.

I make this point because while the debate is currently about a limited number of stem cell lines and whether or not Federal Funds should be used to support medical research thereon, think for just a moment on the fact that millions of chicken eggs are utilized each year to create an equal number of Flu Vaccines for humans. With a population of 300 Million, that is 300 Million chicken eggs that are needed to produce enough flu vaccines for the entire United States.

None of us can even guess at the likely production process for any or all of the pending miracle treatments that we are being promised, but if we are going to produce a billion doses of any given drug per year (3 to 5 Billion Dollars per drug at an average price of $3 to $5 per dose) for an average brand name medication, what may not seem like many stem cells during research and development clearly becomes a whole lot of stem cells when Companies go into production.

I am not sure that even the current abortion rate in the United States could keep up with that level of demand, but think of the added revenues for the abortion clinics. At least at that point, we might be able to stop the Federal Government from funding Planned Parenthood to the tune of $250 Million plus per year, but I doubt it. Once someone starts feeding at the public trough, they never seem to be able to shake the habit.

We are rapidly at risk of becoming a nation of Pharmaceutical Junkies who will do anything to get their fix, and in terms of addition, Stem Cell research threatens to make Crack Cocaine look as innocent as chocolate. In the end, however, some prices are not worth paying, no matter what the potential gain.

In the end, if we continue down this path, we will all be made Slaves in one way or another.