Cartoons and the Issue of Stem Cell Research
The last part of our assignment was to come up with something that will complete your topic. Because I think that many of these cartoons cut right to the heart of the issue, I feel that they complete the issue of stem cell research. Many times, people don't read the articles about issues, and many are left looking at cartoons such as the ones below. Although many of these articles are meant for entertainment, they also are a representation on my personal views on the issue of stem cells and the opposition to them. In the media, it is much more common for the religious conservative view to be the source of the joke, so these cartoons are all from that perspective. And, because I agree with this side, I find these cartoons a great way to end my website and present my opinion on the issue.
The above cartoon is dealing with issues of the government and it's refusal to fund embryonic stem cell research. Along with the government pressure, ideological and religious views also feed into the attempt to stop ES cell research. Therefore, the genie in the bottle represents tied hands of the scientists on the issue. On the opposite side, the full potential benefits of stem cells are listed and recognized as the wishes to many medical advances.
In this cartoon above, several issues are being addressed. President Bush is in the corner, and he is representing the religious rights viewpoint on protecting the sanctity of live (therefore against abortion and ES cell research). While the religious right is so adamantly supporting the right to life, on the left of the picture is the issue of what would our right to life be like if we continue to ignore aspects of the world that will hinder our experiences. Most conservatives, who support the right to life (and oppose stem cells), are not in support of many of the things that increase the well-being of citizens who are already in existence. This cartoons represents one of the conflicts that the conservative side (who is usually aligned with the religious right) has in their reasoning.
I think that this cartoon really hits to the heart of the matter at hand. When we have IVF Clinics all around the country that store embryos, where do the embryos go after they are no longer wanted? When a couple no longer wants any children, or their insurance won't cover the storage, the embryos that aren't used get dumped in the trash. How is this any more ethical than using them for the purpose of scientific and medical advancement? I think that using these embryos for a special purpose is much more ethical than throwing them away. Because of the moral and ethical objections, many people are even scared to get caught in the middle. This cartoon represents the issue in the same way that I see it. There are two choices; either throw them away or use them for a good cause. Which one would you pick?
This last cartoon is addressing our government's actions on the issue of stem cell research and the Iraq War. This cartoon is my favorite out of all the ones that I looked at. The man on the left is reading in the paper about the President Bush's stance on stem cell research. His reason for opposition is because he's against destroying life in order to save a life. What's interesting is if you apply that same reason to the Iraq War. President Bush made the decision to invade Iraq because Saddam was a dictator who we saw as a threat (the whole WMD lie) . As soldiers die in Iraq, the federal government claims that the American lives saved from terrorism (or from Saddam's threat) are the reason for the invasion. So, in other words, ending the lives of soldiers for a greater cause of eliminating a dictator is ok, while it is not ok to use ES cells (who aren't living breathing walking human) to save the lives of people suffering from different conditions.
This website was created by a student for a Monmouth College course