"Pro-Life," But Also Pro-Death

Philosopher-King George W Bush says he will not allow any stem cell research that destroys an embryo on the basis that it is wrong to end one life to benefit others. Because an embryo sitting in cryostorage in a fertility clinic could have as great as a 40% chance of becoming a human baby if implanted in a womb within the next seven years, he says it is a human life, and one human life can not be ended--"desecrated" in the language of the Christian Wrong--to save other lives.

Former Head Executioner of the State of Texas George W Bush, however, says that the death penalty is good for society not because he or you or I have the power to decide that criminals should die for what they have done but because killing violent criminals discourages would-be criminals from committing similar crimes, thereby saving other lives. That is, the painful, premediated murder of prisoners--who certainly alive but are safely locked behind bars, deprived of their basic freedoms and essentially powerless to hurt anyone--by the government is necessary and beneficial because it supposedly saves lives.

In his own words:

STEM CELLS	DEATH PENALTY
"Yet the ethics of medicine are not infinitely adaptable. There is at least one bright line: We do not end some lives for the medical benefit of others." —George W. Bush, New York Times, Aug. 12, 2001	"During the course of the campaign in 1994 I was asked, 'Do you support the death penalty?' I said I did, if administered fairly and justly. Because I believe it saves lives." —Bush, Oct. 17, 2000

See William Saletan at Slate for more onBush's hypocrisy.