Last week, the Times published a meditative little piece by Edward Rothstein on an anthology, Being Human, put out by the President's Council on Bioethics. (The book appears to be free. However, when I followed the directions and sent e-mail asking for a copy, I got a reply saying they were all out right now, and, well, maybe forever, actually.)
Now, the President's Council on Bioethics is, as getupgrrl has pointed out, pretty darn scary. Especially for those of us who just want the freedom to pay up front for the chance to give ourselves hormone shots in the butt, then cry a lot. And, especially that Leon Kass. Some council membership changes he recently pushed through got portions of the blogosphere riled up, and I managed to follow a chain of links to this priceless Kass quote:
"Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone -- a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive.
"I fear I may by this remark lose the sympathy of many readers, people who will condescendingly regard as quaint or even priggish the view that eating in the street is for dogs. [...] This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if WE feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior."
(Okay: I have to ask. Does he really mean catlike, or doglike? Can he tell the difference between a cat and a dog? Or is he so focused on the distinctive qualities of human nature that all other animals might as well be the same?)
What really caught my eye, though, while I was reading that Times piece, was the list of ads I got beneath.
So: let's see. First, we have doctors playing off the paranoid fears and technologic hopes of parents-to-be. They'll take the money up front, thanks.
Second, a software company selling tools to help scientists keep track of their vast flocks of mutant mice.
Finally, some fundies who want you to know that cloning is very bad. To be fair, they do seem to have read quite a bit of the literature about what's gone wrong in animal experiments.
Hey, Dr. Kass et al.: you folks are falling WAY behind here.
I enjoyed your observations! Now that I think about it, Kass was smearing dogs and cats. I think I'll take this up with my dog, Puff.....
Nice blog; thanks for the link!
Posted by: Eric Scheie | Saturday, March 27, 2004 at 04:24 PM
Where do you draw the line? Kass went a little too far, but I agree that such doglike behavior as butt-sniffing should be avoided. Perhaps a compromise could be negotiated.
Posted by: John Emerson | Thursday, March 03, 2005 at 03:41 PM
I will defend to the death (your death, that is) your right to sniff butts on the street.
Posted by: Jon Koppenhoefer | Friday, March 04, 2005 at 06:09 AM