Sunday, March 15, 2009

"A Modest Proposal" letter to editor, The Day sub. 3-15-09

Let's see if this one gets published...

In 1729 Jonathan Swift satirically wrote “A Modest Proposal,” suggesting that the plight of the Irish could be improved if they sold off their infants as food, for “a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.”

In 2009, Professor Sir Richard Gardner, an Oxford University stem cell expert, suggested that aborted babies should be used to increase the availability of organs for adult transplant. “The use of aborted foetuses ‘is something that could be done but it’s not something that’s talked about much’, Sir Richard said. He added: ‘It is at least a temporary solution.’” (Daily Mail, March 11)

Well I guess I’ll breath a sigh of relief that he’s not yet talking about it as the Final Solution.

Even though this is not satire, we Americans are not yet harvesting babies for their organs. We’re just harvesting them for their stem cells.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

MikeCT,
I am surprised to see you writing about a Modest Proposal. Did you read that book? That was something that this man Nabilat mentioned during his brief stint on the vote site.
Why don't we see you any longer on the site? Had enough?
Well it would be nice to see someone like yourself back on there. We were going to read A modest Proposal for our bookclub. Do you think we should? I Hear is is very small and funny. Did you find it so?
Cindy

Mike in CT said...

Hi Cindy,

If you click on the link in my post you can read "A Modest Proposal" online. It's not a book, but an essay you can read in 10-15 minutes.

I pop in and read on the CV site pretty frequently, but I'm not posting there very often. Work and home have gotten busy and I'm trying to work on some other projects, including this blog, where the conversation, hopefully, doesn't get as petty as it has there recently.

Anonymous said...

Mike, you are correct. It makes me more than sad, to know what we are doing to our children and
future generations.

I, too, used to blog over at CatholicVote,( don't even read it anymore ) but found the discussion to be less than enlightening and downright rude at times. The unpleasantness gets to be too,too much.

This site is wonderful,though, and I hope many more will find it. The intelligent insight is most appreciated.

Subvet said...

"We’re just harvesting them for their stem cells."

Kind of the same thing but only different, right?

(Note to self; try giving up sarcasm for the remainder of Lent)

Mike in CT said...

Yeah, the word cannibalism comes to mind.

Soylent Green, anyone?