George Neumayr swats Michael Kinsley soundly in his American Spectator column today. Kinsley, who suffers from Parkinsons, is anxious to see human embryos, which he refers to as "biologically more primitive than a mosquito," exploited to cure ailing adults like him.

Neumayr gets to the nub of the issue with elegant economy:

"Morality and all that" must be swept aside so that one group of human beings can exploit a class of weaker human beings, mere "clumps." It doesn't occur to Kinsley that the very diseased people he thinks this embryo—destroying research will cure are the ones least likely to survive in the dehumanized, self—centered ethos he's advocating to justify it. He throws down the gauntlet and says in his subhead, "Mr. Bush, don't I matter more than tiny clumps of cells?" One day, probably not very long from now, society will say, "No, Mr. Kinsley, you don't. We don't think disabled adults are valuable." And at that point, what principle will protect him? He belittles bioethicists for marshalling arguments against therapeutic cloning that "are concerned with the nature of humanity and stuff." It is those arguments that protect the weak and vulnerable from the designs of a dehumanized scientific culture.

Kinsley no doubt thinks of himself as a pretty smart fellow. An adult lifetime spent in the company of such folks has taught me they aren't.

Thomas Lifson  5 24 05