Holocaust Survivor Calls On Lawmakers To Apologize

[Mrs. Overall]

http://www.komotv.com/stories/35881.htm

OLYMPIA WA- A Holocaust survivor who endured Nazi medical experiments is demanding an apology from state lawmakers who compared embryonic stem cell research to Nazi atrocities. "I was just very much hurt," Fred Taucher, 72, said Tuesday. "You don't know how it hit me. It's beyond my comprehension. Usually I do not get this emotional."

Three state representatives drew comparisons on the House floor last week between Nazi experiments during the Holocaust and the potential dangers of embryonic stem cell research. Rep. Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup, said Tuesday that she stands by her remarks. "I don't understand why they're so upset," she said.

Taucher and other Jewish leaders said Tuesday that comparing the murder of 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany to stem cell research trivializes the Holocaust. "To take such unspeakable horrors and inhumanity, and to try to create a moral equivalency to using scientific and medical knowledge to alleviate the suffering and the pain of people is something which is totally inappropriate and terribly disappointing," said Rabbi Moshe Kletenik, leader of Washington's oldest synagogue, Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath in Seattle. Both his parents are Holocaust survivors.

McDonald said she believes embryonic stem cell research kills human lives, and she will not apologize for her comments. In her floor speech, McDonald referred to "experiments that were done by the Third Reich" as a warning about embryonic stem cell research. "I think they're making more of it than they need to," she said about the complaints raised Tuesday.

[HockeyMom]

1. Clueless

NO COMPARISON. HORRIBLE, to even make a comparison between a group of cells (no head, no arms, no legs)in a PETRI dish, to a fully formed, living, breathing, human being being tortured, experimented on, and murdered. Sorry, lady I cannot make that comparison either.

[cynatnite]

2. It makes my day when repubs show their ignorance

Of course she wouldn't have a clue :eyes: She's got her head so far up bush's ass that a clue would have to tunnel in for her to get it.

[beam me up scottie]

5. You mean there's still room?

She has a lot of neighbors.
:evilgrin:

[Book Lover]

3. "I don't understand why they're so upset"

OK, OK, OK, let me get this straight: you use the event of the Holocaust for political points (and for the sake of argument let's say that's OK), then complain when an actual survivor of the Holocaust expresses his opinion?

[DIKB]

4. David F*cking Koresh !!!

These people are so clueless. I can't possibly understand how they can be this ignorant.

A cluster of cells is not cognizant, not aware of it's surroundings, you cannot torture them, you cannot make them suffer by starving them, there is no goal to eradicate an entire ethnic group. How are these even REMOTELY similar ?!?!

And the people whose suffering you are belittling, you complain about ? OMFG !!!!

The holocaust is NOT a political tool, to be used to get people riled up whenever you want them to be.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. She is either stupid or uninformed.

By my theology and according to the precepts of my faith - stem cell research is permitted.

1. Stem Cell Research in Jewish Law by Rabbi Daniel Eisenberg, MD, http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/stemcellres.html

2. Is the destruction of preexisting pre-embryos permitted for stem cell research? by Rabbi Daniel Eisenberg, MD, http://www.aish.com/societyWork/sciencenature/Is_Stem_Cell_Research_Ethical$.asp

3. 3. Letter To President Bush by the UNION of ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA and the RABBINICAL COUNCIL OF AMERICA re Jewish Position On Stem Cell Research, http://www.ou.org/public/statements/2001/nate34.htm

I am also a diabetic, with some kidney problems, occasional limb numbness problems, and night vision problems -- and as they get worse I will remember stem cell opponents like Mister William Frist, Mister Tom Coburn, Mister Dave Weldon, Tom DeLay, Joyce McDonald, and Ms Diana Schaub -- and I ask them to do the same for me (Ha!).

These people are not "compassionate conservatives of faith" they are hypocrites who take the Lord's name in vain.

And Mister William Frist, Mister Tom Coburn, Mister Dave Weldon appear to have slipped up on the Hippocratic oath and taken the hypocrite oath instead.

[madaboutharry]

7. This woman is an

asshole. There, now that feels better!

[Charlie Brown]

8. I'm sick of this "If you're for research funding, you're a Nazi" bull$hit

[Merope215]

9. Rep. Joyce McDonald

sucks.

I read somewhere on DU a long time ago, though, that whoever uses the word "Nazi" first about his/her opponents usually loses. Maybe we can take that as a good sign.

[MsMagnificent]

10. There's this thing called a Nervous System that registers pain

in more advanced, (mega) multi celled organisms. More stringent, 'Life' calls as one of its requisites response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism. When speaking of mammals, consciousness of self and a mental thought process are usually required.

A Blastocyst is an agglomerate of cells consisting of a single layer of cells bounding a hollow fluid-filled rounded cavity which are a very small number of cells and incredibly miniscule. There is no 'system' of any kind whatsoever in a Blastocyst. There is no brain, there is no consciousness of self. All there is is a small number of cells and some fluid.

By holding Blastocysts indicative of Life and therefore sacred, then even taking a biopsy of cancerous cells would be considered anti-Life, i. e. to some people, murder. Perhaps even more so in that there is a much larger aggregation of viable material in the colony of cancerous cells.

--is this a ridiculous analogy? Sure it is, but it is still apt especially when contorting what passes for neo-CON knowledge and reason.

It is not only insulting to compare 'the sufferings' of blastocysts to what human beings can (and did) experience, it is insulting even to one-celled but fully functioning entities.


Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to go give a decent, solemn, KKKhristian burial to my toenail clippings.