Collateral Damage

  Photo courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

She’s next to her father.  You fill in the rest of the story.

Meanwhile, Bush vetoed again a stem cell research bill which would allow blastocysts destined to become medical waste to be used for vital research into neurological degenerative disorders, spinal cord injury and brain diseases.  Blastocysts cannot develop into babies unless they are implanted into the lining of a uterus.  They are not human in shape, development and function – they have no differentiated brain cells or sensory cells.  They do not see, they do not feel, they do not think, they do not smell – they are not human, and never will be without successful maternal uterine implantation.

About a week after the sperm fertilizes the egg, the fertilized egg (zygote) has become a multicelled blastocyst. A blastocyst is about the size of a pinhead, and it’s a hollow ball of cells with fluid inside.

Here’s a picture of what Bush wishes to throw into the medical disposal trash bag, rather than to be the source of treatment for disease, injury and disability:

Medical waste.  The size of a head of a pin.

Millions of people who will be denied life-saving treatment.  Children in the thousands who are bereft of their mothers and fathers – the children of US soldiers and marines, the children of Iraqi and Afghani civilians.

All just collateral damage.

Meanwhile, Bush is doing everything in his power (and what isn’t?) to block expanded S-CHIP healthcare funding.  He is mandating preventable deaths and suffering by his actions.

Not in my name.

27 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. For us all to hold in our hearts tomorrow during the moratorium. Bush has never held a family member who is staring at the father she just saw shot dead or blown up.  I have, actually, in my time at a trauma center, but never in a combat zone.

    However, the father’s blood, and the child’s horror are squarely and permanently tattooed on Bush’s hands.

    • OPOL on September 21, 2007 at 01:58

    and a pity for our country…a pity beyond measure.

  2. for me, it can trigger a ptsd reaction. Doesn’t necessarily, but photos have in the past…

    thanks…

    jeffinalabama

    • KrisC on September 21, 2007 at 02:51

    a diary here.
    I invite you to read it. It’s not that long.
    We can never let ourselves forget the damage our country has caused in the name of “Democracy”!  Democracy, my arse! 

    I have looked into adopting an Iraqi orphan, right now it can’t be done, but I’d more than willingly do it. 

    • KrisC on September 21, 2007 at 02:51

    a diary here.
    I invite you to read it. It’s not that long.
    We can never let ourselves forget the damage our country has caused in the name of “Democracy”!  Democracy, my arse! 

    I have looked into adopting an Iraqi orphan, right now it can’t be done, but I’d more than willingly do it. 

  3. He started out by talking about the SCHIP program and how the dems are letting this go until right before the deadline for “political reasons”.  He made it sound so good from his point of view – $5B over the next five years – but didn’t say that his program would hurt/delete children from the roles in states that have a higher family income level than what he wants.  (I think that the Dem plan is for $35B.)  He did say that the Democratic plan encourages families that could afford insurance to go on the government plan.

    I could have just screamed.  How in the hell does he know whether or not these families could afford private insurance.  If they could, chances are they wouldn’t be on a state-run plan.  He has not one caring feeling for these families.  He doesn’t give a hoot about these families’ cost-of-living expenses in high-cost areas.  Just give and give to these insurance corporations – that’s a big part of what he’s about.

    He also made the comment regarding the Democratic Congress, which I live blogged today, “They want to get their own way, but they are not”.

    My comment regarding the above:

    That last sentence sums it up on all levels.  There is no way in hell that he is going to let the Dems get what they want on ANY level.  He really is a non-compromising bully that hasn’t gotten over losing November’s congressional elections to the Dems.

    I just cannot wait until this presidential term is over. 

  4. Depleted
    Uranium

    • Pandora on September 21, 2007 at 04:30

    from this invasion, war, strife, occupation – whatever – will last for generations. I just don’t understand why Congress doesn’t get it and move to end it.

    BTW, glad you’re still here!

    • 3card on September 21, 2007 at 06:50

    How the image has so overshadowed the text of your essay. How could it not? Much the way the war has obscured the rest of the damages done to our society by this administration.

    Collateral damage indeed.

    I only have one quibble, and so much of the debate revolves around irrelevant semantics that I hate to even bring it up. The blastocyst cells are every bit as human as the sloughed off skin cells forming dust in my mattress.  Concede this spurious point to the wingnuts. Clearly not every human cell is a ‘person’ and entitled to the protections afforded to ‘we the people’.

  5.  

Comments have been disabled.