[ExI] , Morality experts

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 23/06/2020 20:45, John K Clark wrote:
> The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is complaining about several 
> promising COVID-19 vaccines because they were manufactured with the 
> help of cells from a fetus that was aborted way back in 1972. It's too 
> bad these experts on morality didn't express the same moral outrage 
> when they heard about sexual abuse of young boys by their priests.
>
> Vaccines that use human fetal cells draw fire 
> <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1170?rss=1>
>

The biggest problem with this, as I see it, is not the immediate issue 
of condemning a promising vaccine (which is bad enough), but the much 
more serious and longer-term one of stigmatising an entire field that 
should be taken seriously, but because of these religious idiots, is 
more likely to be either derided and ignored, or cause confusion for the 
majority of people.

Genuine ethical concerns about new technology are routinely conflated 
with superstitious beliefs and prejudices. This is leading to babies 
being thrown out with bathwater. I've even caught myself thinking 
"ethics, schmethics", but then realised that there actually are genuine 
ethical concerns that need to be addressed. Just not by 
religiously-motivated 'bioethicists'.

What we need is a way to claim back morality and ethics from religion, 
and turn them from obeisance to an imaginary tyrant to concern for 
people's well-being.

-- 
Ben Zaiboc

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