Posts Made By: Doug Matulis

William Paolini said:

What should be the ethical guidelines for synthetic life?

The following link, http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/synthetic-cell-breakthrough, relates the reporting of the first synthetically created DNA which was implanted into a cell. They even went so far as to put watermarks in the gene as well as encoded messages for fun (giving proof of the creator).

Of course, it's the good old oil companies who funded this as they want to create proprietary bacteria to eat CO2 and make fuel as a by product (there goes the environment if it spirals out of control causing global cooling?).

Anyway, we just made a leap forward in creating, synthesizing, one celled life which can replicate and inevitably mutate. What do you think should be the ethics guidelines for activities like this? Lower order life forms of course would be different than higher order ones. Going to be interesting is we ever figure out how to jump start consciuosness in a synthetic.

david elosser said:

I actually heard this first from a caller at the end of the third hour of Rush's radio show. Now there's this article from NYDaily News:

A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero..."I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11,"..."Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country," said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. "People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there."

Whether you agree or disagree, I have to admit I admire that they are taking a stand even when it means giving up a scarce source of income in these rotten economic days. Standing up for one's principles seems to be a rare commodity these days.

"There were construction workers killed on 9/11 and many more who got horribly sick cleaning up Ground Zero," Coletti said. "It's very emotional."...[L.V. Spina said] "Hell, you could do it next to my house in Rockaway Beach, I would be fine with it. But I'm not fine with it where blood has been spilled."

Many people have criticized Obama for speaking out in favor of the mosque while at the same time ignoring the plight of many of the workers who died or got sick during the clean-up operations.

"It's a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and the organized labor force because we are experiencing such high levels of unemployment," [Coletti] said. "Yet at the same time, this is a very sacred sight to the union guys."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/20/2010-08-20_we_wont_build_it_hardhats_say_no_way_they_will_work_on_wtc_mosque.html

David E

William Paolini said:

Took a road trip to Chicago (12 hrs) last week. On the return drive my son was asked do I think that if a human attained power over creation, basically omnipotent, how I thought they would be. So the question was if I thought they would become like God is portrayed as loving and caring and their interest was in helping humans, or not? He was reading a graphic novel called the Watchmen and in it a person attains omnipotence basically and can control all time/matter/space.

So how would you have answered (this was after a discussion on scientology of all things)?

Doug Matulis said:

When Does Human Life Begin?

Doctors Testify to U.S. Senate

Many internationally-known geneticists and biologists have testified that human life begins at conception. In 1981 (April 23-24) a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the very question: When does human life begin? Following are testimonies from two of the doctors who testified:

1. Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, said: "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception."

2. Dr. McCarthy de Mere, a medical doctor and law professor at the University of Tennessee, testified: "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception."

"The Father of Modern Genetics" Testifies

Dr. Jerome Lejeune, known as "The Father of Modern Genetics," also testified that human life begins at conception before the Louisiana Legislature's House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice on June 7, 1990.

Dr. Lejeune explained that within three to seven days after fertilization we can determine if the new human being is a boy or a girl. "At no time," Dr. Lejeune said, "is the human being a blob of protoplasm. As far as your nature is concerned, I see no difference between the early person that you were at conception and the late person which you are now. You were, and are, a human being."

Dr. Lejeune also pointed out that each human being is unique -- different from the mother -- from the moment of conception. He said, "Recent discoveries by Dr. Alec Jeffreys of England demonstrate that this information [on the DNA molecule] is stored by a system of bar codes not unlike those found on products at the supermarket...it's not any longer a theory that each of us is unique."

Dr. Jerome Lejeune died on April 3, 1994. Dr. Lejeune of Paris, France was a medical doctor, a Doctor of Science and a professor of Fundamental Genetics for over twenty years. Dr. Lejeune discovered the genetic cause of Down Syndrome, receiving the Kennedy Prize for the discovery and, in addition, received the Memorial Allen Award Medal, the world's highest award for work in the field of Genetics. He practiced his profession at the Hôpital des Enfants Malades (Sick Children's Hospital) in Paris. Dr. Lejeune was a member of the American Academy of the Arts and Science, a member of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, The Royal Society of Science in Stockholm, the Science Academy in Italy and Argentina, The Pontifical Academy of Science and The Academy of Medicine in France.

Doctor handed live baby at 8 weeks gestation...

Consider Dr. Rockwell's testimony:

Statement by Paul E. Rockwell, M.D.:

"Eleven years ago while giving an anesthetic for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy (at 8 weeks gestation), I was handed what I believe was the smallest living human ever seen. The embryonic sac was intact and transparent. Within the sac was a tiny human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid, while attached to the wall by the umbilical cord. This tiny human was perfectly developed, with long, tapering fingers, feet and toes. It was almost transparent, as regards the skin, and the delicate arteries and veins were prominent to the ends of the fingers."

Dr. Rockwell continues, "The baby was extremely alive and swam about the sac approximately one time per second, with a natural swimmer's stroke. This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and drawings and models of 'embryos' which I had seen, nor did it look like a few embryos I have been able to observe since then, obviously because this one was alive! When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost his life and took on the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this stage of life (with blunt extremities etc.)."

The statement by Paul E. Rockwell, M.D., an anesthesiologist, was quoted by Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Willke in their Handbook on Abortion. Dr. Rockwell did not testify before the U.S. Judiciary Subcommittee.

Doug Matulis said:

Abortions should only be performed if a normal delivery will result in the mothers death and a C-Secion procedure can't be performed. Logical dictates that life comes from life and that life begins at conception when the living egg meets the living sperm. God 'knits' the child in the womb. A woman can choose anything she wants, just not killing the life in the womb. Its a baby, not a tissue mass. It does not matter how the egg is fertilized, it is still human life, a baby.

If we are not going to have the laws changed to ban abortions, then a new law should be written that mandates hi-res ultrasound images be shown to the would be baby killing mother so she can at least see the hands, feet, and face of the person whose life she is choosing to terminate.

Further, all states should have a parental notification law before a minor can have an abortion.

At least the number of abortions would drop dramatically and the profit motive would taken away.

Doug Matulis said:

Whose hand is in the attached picture, the hand of a tumor or tissue mass of the hand of a human baby?

You be the judge.

This pic is of a 12 week old prenatal baby. Abortionists routinely ripe these babies apart and throw them in the garbage. One has to be really sick in the head to support this kind of killing. Clyde is one of these people, who else is?

David Cotterell said:

Answer 'YES' or 'NO' to the following questions. No 'it depends...' YES or NO
Let the discussion occur on the other threads but let's keep it simple here.

1. Abortions should be allowed at any time during pregnancy. Y/N

2. Abortion should only be allowed up to the end of the second trimester? Y/N

3. Abortion should only be allowed up to the end of the first trimester? Y/N

4. Abortion should only be allowed in special cases such as medical harm to the mother if the pregnancy were to continue to term, cases of rape, incest, profound fetal defects and the like? Y/N

5. Abortion should not be allowed under any circumstances at all? Y/N

For the record, and to show the format for answering, here's me: (Each statement taken on its own face value)

1. no
2. yes
3. no
4. no
5. no

Dave

Doug Matulis said:

When Does Human Life Begin?

Doctors Testify to U.S. Senate

Many internationally-known geneticists and biologists have testified that human life begins at conception. In 1981 (April 23-24) a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the very question: When does human life begin? Following are testimonies from two of the doctors who testified:

1. Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, said: "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception."

2. Dr. McCarthy de Mere, a medical doctor and law professor at the University of Tennessee, testified: "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception."

"The Father of Modern Genetics" Testifies

Dr. Jerome Lejeune, known as "The Father of Modern Genetics," also testified that human life begins at conception before the Louisiana Legislature's House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice on June 7, 1990.

Dr. Lejeune explained that within three to seven days after fertilization we can determine if the new human being is a boy or a girl. "At no time," Dr. Lejeune said, "is the human being a blob of protoplasm. As far as your nature is concerned, I see no difference between the early person that you were at conception and the late person which you are now. You were, and are, a human being."

Dr. Lejeune also pointed out that each human being is unique -- different from the mother -- from the moment of conception. He said, "Recent discoveries by Dr. Alec Jeffreys of England demonstrate that this information [on the DNA molecule] is stored by a system of bar codes not unlike those found on products at the supermarket...it's not any longer a theory that each of us is unique."

Dr. Jerome Lejeune died on April 3, 1994. Dr. Lejeune of Paris, France was a medical doctor, a Doctor of Science and a professor of Fundamental Genetics for over twenty years. Dr. Lejeune discovered the genetic cause of Down Syndrome, receiving the Kennedy Prize for the discovery and, in addition, received the Memorial Allen Award Medal, the world's highest award for work in the field of Genetics. He practiced his profession at the Hôpital des Enfants Malades (Sick Children's Hospital) in Paris. Dr. Lejeune was a member of the American Academy of the Arts and Science, a member of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, The Royal Society of Science in Stockholm, the Science Academy in Italy and Argentina, The Pontifical Academy of Science and The Academy of Medicine in France.

Doctor handed live baby at 8 weeks gestation...

Consider Dr. Rockwell's testimony:

Statement by Paul E. Rockwell, M.D.:

"Eleven years ago while giving an anesthetic for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy (at 8 weeks gestation), I was handed what I believe was the smallest living human ever seen. The embryonic sac was intact and transparent. Within the sac was a tiny human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid, while attached to the wall by the umbilical cord. This tiny human was perfectly developed, with long, tapering fingers, feet and toes. It was almost transparent, as regards the skin, and the delicate arteries and veins were prominent to the ends of the fingers."

Dr. Rockwell continues, "The baby was extremely alive and swam about the sac approximately one time per second, with a natural swimmer's stroke. This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and drawings and models of 'embryos' which I had seen, nor did it look like a few embryos I have been able to observe since then, obviously because this one was alive! When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost his life and took on the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this stage of life (with blunt extremities etc.)."

The statement by Paul E. Rockwell, M.D., an anesthesiologist, was quoted by Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Willke in their Handbook on Abortion. Dr. Rockwell did not testify before the U.S. Judiciary Subcommittee.

Doug Matulis said:

Whose hand is in the attached picture, the hand of a tumor or tissue mass of the hand of a human baby?

You be the judge.

This pic is of a 12 week old prenatal baby. Abortionists routinely ripe these babies apart and throw them in the garbage. One has to be really sick in the head to support this kind of killing. Clyde is one of these people, who else is?

david elosser said:

http://www.ky3.com/home/video/Billboard-buyer-shares-why-he-brought-Vote-Obama-sign-to-the-Ozarks-101850443.html

The owner of the sign has, of course, received death threats, and has been accused of hate speech and racism. That was expected. But I love the quote at the bottom:
"If everybody thinks [President Obama's] done a great job and they're very happy," he said, "then I guess they'd be buying billboards saying 'I'm proud to have voted for him.' That's what makes America great, isn't it?"


David E