Comments:

raymond - 2004-12-07 13:11:10
Used to be an amazing fetus exhibit out west of Battle Creek. Assembled by a Chicago doctor, I recall. Awesome and humbling. Virtuality just don't cut it sometimes. Of course, our sensibilities are too tender for reality. Thus the popularity of the cover-up applied from men's swim suits to e-elections to prisoners without charges. Out of our sight, out of our minds.
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Laura - 2004-12-07 13:20:09
You always have a good way of making connections.

I thought this anti-fetus-display "pressure" was one of the more unusual spasms of the political climate.

The intersection of ethics and science is a weird one. In this case, I would argue for the scientific value of the fetus displays, and I'd wish that scientists would keep personal "ethics" out of it. On the other hand, you kind of wish Oppenheimer and his pals had thought twice.
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Dan Arbor - 2004-12-07 14:21:59
Yes, ethics in science is a moveable feast, isn't it? Just when I think things are clear-cut, the example of an Oppenheimer muddies the waters a bit.

Regardless, doesn't it seem that anytime someone protests about anything to do with a fetus, the religious right is involved somehow?

I mean, who else would be offended by knowledge and enlightenment?
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Dan Arbor - 2004-12-07 14:26:30
Here's more to chew over in the science and morality debate: http://politics.slate.msn.com/id/2110670
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Laura - 2004-12-07 14:30:00
It just seems weird to me that anyone would be so thoroughly het up by this issue that the ultra-neutral, scientific artifact of a preserved fetus/series of same would provoke protest. I mean, such an object could hardly be further removed from the subject of abortion. Yet apparently there's an actual movement going on to "pressure" museums--as if a museum is a political entity.
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Dan Arbor - 2004-12-07 14:51:12
In the current climate, everything is fair game. Textbooks, privacy, museums, science...it's all subject to filtering through whatever brand of lens you ascribe to.

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed�if all records told the same tale�then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" --1984, George Orwell
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Laura - 2004-12-07 14:57:29
That is elegantly said. After reading the critical-thinking "guide" Lies My Teacher Told Me I reexamined an American-history book I have which I thought was pretty good. But I found omissions, slants, and selective history, even in a 2000 text.
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Laura - 2004-12-07 19:03:04
hm, for some reason that Slate link isn't working, but it's probably a problem on my end.
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Anna - 2004-12-07 20:47:28
There's a women's health clinic downtown where I live, and there are always people outside screaming rabidly and carrying graphic "pictures" (not sure whether they're real or not) of fetuses at different ages, in utero, being aborted, etc. etc. Their favorite chant is, "they're killing BABIES in there!".

A friend with a similarly depraved sense of humor and I have thought we might someday go and stand on the opposite corner outside of the Dunkin Donuts and start shouting, "They're killing BAGELS in there." Of course, the gag would only work if we carried signs showing bagels in various stages of development, getting sliced by knives. etc. etc. etc. Someday.
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Laura - 2004-12-08 09:20:15
I find that to be very funny...and a good way to make those people look foolish.
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