Thoughts from the Right on Robert P. George on the Beginning of Human Life

Mr. George continues to preach the word. This time he's interviewed by Katherine Jean Lopez of NRO. Thoughts from the Right has the story here. He has concerns about the current national dialogue regarding ESCR. His principle question: Why doesn't Mario Cuomo want to stanBut I would have thought that Mario Cuomo would want to stand with those of us who affirm the inherent and equal dignity of every member of the human family. Surely he would wish to uphold against the Singers of the world Jefferson's "self-evident" proposition that all human beings are created equal with those that support the self-evident truth that all people, of whatever stage of development, deserve the right to live? Here's an excerpt:

NRO: Is he just ignoring reality ?

George: Yes. In dodging the moral argument against embryo killing, he [Mario Cuomo] is ignoring the basic facts of human embryology and developmental biology. There is no mystery about when the life of a new human individual begins. It is not a matter of subjective opinion or private religious belief. One finds the answer not by consulting one's viscera or searching through the Bible or the Koran; one finds it, rather, in the basic texts of the relevant scientific disciplines. Those texts are clear. Although none of us was ever a sperm cell or an ovum, each of us was, at an earlier stage of development, an embryo, just as each of us was an adolescent, a child, an infant, and a fetus. Each of us, by directing his own integral organic functioning, developed himself (sex is determined from the beginning) from the embryonic, into and through the fetal, infant, child, and adolescent stages, and into adulthood with his unity and determinateness intact. One's identity as a human being does not vary with or depend upon one's location, environment, age, size, stage of development, or condition of dependency.
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But I would have thought that Mario Cuomo would want to stand with those of us who affirm the inherent and equal dignity of every member of the human family. Surely he would wish to uphold against the Singers of the world Jefferson's "self-evident" proposition that all human beings are created equal.

Mr. George answers his own question, of course. If Mario Cuomo made that stand, where could he run for cover to justify his position on abortion? There would be no philosophical escape route. His party will never allow any compromise on the "right" to abortion. One does not dilute the Sacrament to Moloch. Therefore, he hides. He hides from scientific and ethical truth. He hides from the doctrine of his own Roman Catholic Church. He hides in the rationalization that so many of his Catholic democratic compatriots utter: "I'm personally opposed, but I can't impose my morality on others." Funny, I always thought that morality belonged to everyone. I thought there was one morality. Some may have a more full understanding of morality than others, just as some have a more full apprehension of truth than others. But there's no such thing as "my truth" or "your truth." There's no personal morality. I suspect that Mr. Cuomo knows this. Still, a good soundbite is a good soundbite.

Thus have the Reasonable vitriated reason, so that only the Fools can still practice it in its authentic form. Mr. Cuomo has become such a sad characterture of himself. He would do everyone, Reasonable and Foolish alike, a great service if he just went quietly into the night. I wouldn't bet a sip of guiness that he will.