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Accumulated Wisdom 2007.11.22
Posted By Stefan Monsaureus
According to the Associated Press, the “little people” may be in line for more equitable treatment.
The Colorado Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for an anti-abortion group to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg as a person… If approved by voters, the measure would give fertilized eggs the state constitutional protections of inalienable rights, justice and due process.
Clearly, such a measure, if passed, would be the end of legal abortion. And it would wreak havoc on the next census.
The Wall Street Journal reports on Dr. Arthur Matas, a transplant surgeon actively promoting a change in U.S. policy that would permit the sale of kidneys.
“There’s one clear argument for sales,” Dr. Matas told a gathering of surgeons earlier this year. The practice, currently illegal in the U.S., “would increase the supply of kidneys, save lives and improve the quality of life for those with end-stage renal disease.”
With thousands of patients on the kidney transplant waiting list dying each year, and a significant public health burden associated maintaining patients with kidney failure, the merits of this proposal are coming into clearer view. Others point to the fact that current donors are given inadequate (i.e. zero) compensation for the loss of a kidney and the discomfort of a surgical procedure, with the only consideration being that warm fuzzy feeling one gets from altruistic deeds. It is not, however, without controversy, centered primarily on the possibility that those of lower economic status could be exploited. At least the issue is being discussed (e.g. here or here). Links to some additional information may be found at here, here, or here.
The Center for American Progress has launched a multi-year media campaign.
The first part of the campaign involves a pilot experiment to begin defining progressivism in the public’s mind through a series of distinct advertisements that explain the progressive movement’s core values and policy ideas, its historical accomplishments, and its philosophical differences with conservatives.
The first of these videos can be viewed here (Quicktime movie). This is progress, but it would be nice to see a similar effort to recapture the dreaded “L” word, which has become a term of opprobrium when passed over the forked-tongue of the neo-radical right wing.
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22 November 2007
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