These short explorations of contemporary bioethics issues first aired on Moody Radio.
Have you heard about the Star Wars Force Trainer? It’s not a prop from the movie, but a toy you can pick up for $99.
“Christmas is all about the children.” We’ve all heard that saying. As a mom, I got more excited about buying gifts for our children than for the adults in our family. As our children grew up, finding the right gift became more of a challenge….in part because their tastes grew more expensive!
Our family collects nativity sets, from as small as an egg to our yard-sized version. When our three children were small, we started a collectible set of resin Fontanini figures that they could play with and rearrange. When we set up the stable scene, one child would hide the Baby Jesus figure. That manger crib sat empty for weeks. Then, on Christmas morning, Baby Jesus was placed in the empty manger, as we sang “Happy Birthday.”
There are some middle-aged men walking around who have fathered half a dozen children. Maybe even twenty. Are these men candidates for “Father of the Year,” men who just love children? No. These men haven’t even met any of their children. Should we turn them in for gross irresponsibility? No, these men were paid.
We just found out that our dear friends’ 24-year-old son, Luke, was diagnosed with leukemia. I wonder if your baby could have helped him? I’m talking about cord blood donation.
Last year, my aunt and uncle moved out of their house. As part of their downsizing, they had to get rid of their home electronic organ. They couldn’t sell it; they even had a hard time giving it away. If Aunt Marie and Uncle Roy had a different kind of organ to offer, people would have beat a proverbial path to their door. The demand isn’t for Hammonds, but for kidneys.
Carole Horlock loves being pregnant. She’s had twelve babies in thirteen years. Anita Brush has had eleven children. You might think these women are part of the large-family movement. Guess again. These women have given away almost all of their babies. They are serial surrogates.
What would you say is the price of eggs today? You can get organic, all-natural eggs for $4.85 a dozen. And then there is the cage-free, vegetarian variety, for $3.77. And, on sale, I’ve found the humble store brand for 99 cents a dozen. There are sales of other kinds of eggs as well. I’m talking about human eggs.
What does the Spanish parliament have in common with Peter Singer, the Australian bioethicist? They both have high regard for the Great Ape, a family of primates that includes the gorilla, orangutan, and chimpanzee. Peter Singer, who gained notoriety for his 1975 book Animal Liberation, helped start the Great Ape Project with the goal of defending the rights of great apes: their right to life, their right not to be tortured, and the protection of their individual liberty.
The news is filled with hype about the life-saving and curative potential of stem cell research using human embryos. Should we celebrate this, or be alarmed? Is the embryo one of us? Or, has the embryo become the lab rat of the 21st century? Our answer is critical.
