Christian MD: Dangerous Eugenics Research Being Funded With Taxpayer Dollars
by Mary Rettig
May 16, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) says taxpayer dollars are going to fund a dangerous area of scientific research. The National Institutes of Health has given a grant of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars to Professor Maxwell Mehlman, a scientist at Case Western University, to assist him in studying the genetic enhancements of human beings.Dr. David Stevens of the CMDA says Mehlman is a known leader in the field of transhumanism, an area of study that the Christian doctor says has "creating a post-human future" as its goal. The quest of transhumanism, he explains, is to move into that future "by first connecting human beings to computers, essentially creating cyborgs -- part human, part computer."
But the transhumanists' ultimate objective, Stevens asserts, is "to be able to live forever by downloading your brain into cyberspace." He says the U.S. government is highly interested in this far-out field of study, and particularly in the area of human genetic enhancements.
The dangers of this line of inquiry and its logical progressions are numerous, the Christian doctor points out. One frightening scenario, he suggests, is the potential "arms race" that could develop between nations vying to be the first to create a race of super-smart, super-strong, enhanced human beings for use as soldiers.
Christian bioethicists have confronted the National Institutes of Health on this issue, Stevens notes. Meanwhile, the NIH has denied that it is funding efforts to make a smarter, stronger human race through genetic manipulation.
However, the more investigators have researched the matter the clearer it has become, the CMDA spokesman contends, that "that's exactly what's happening and that this funding has gone to this scientist who is one of the proponents and very involved in the transhumanist movement."
And this is not some "mad scientist" performing weird experiments in a secluded laboratory somewhere, Stevens adds. This is a well-funded scientist at a premier research institute conducting his studies with the help of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The kind of work Mehlman is doing on human genetic enhancement is dangerously deceptive, Stevens says, and the CMDA executive director insists that it is not something the U.S. government should be funding. Another pro-family organization, the Family Research Council, is calling on the NIH to rescind Mehlman's grant.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
