Original Proposal

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On 8/5/2016, John Karls proposed a topic entitled ““Clone Rights: Involuntary Soldiers, Sex Slaves, Human ‘Lab Rats’ Etc.” which began -

“I propose that we study today’s NIH Proposal for Human Stem Cell Research.

“This would dovetail nicely with the focus of our 4/9/2008 meeting 8 years ago entitled “Clone Rights: Involuntary Soldiers, Sex Slaves, Human ‘Lab Rats’ Etc.” for which we viewed together -

“The 2005 Hollywood movie “The Island” which starred Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, and which dealt with the creation of human clones whose organs, whenever needed by their human “sponsors” who had financed their creation, could be harvested for transplant to the “sponsor” while the clones, of course, died;

“and for which our short meeting description was -

“How would you like to be an involuntary soldier, sex slave, human "lab rat" etc. WITH NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS JUST BECAUSE (1) the stem cells from which you were created came from skin cells rather than an embryo, or (2) your DNA is only 99% of the way from chimp DNA to human DNA (or any of the chimp-human DNA combinations the Yale U Biology Dept has created and is creating)??? Re (2), how do legal classifications based on % of human DNA differ from legal classifications in the Old South based on % of African-American blood, or legal classifications in Hitler's Third Reich based on % of Jewish blood???

“There follows immediately below a description of the NIH proposal in Nature (the International Weekly Journal of Science), following which is the text of the NIH proposal itself as it appeared today in the Federal Register.”

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1/29/2017 UPDATE

On 1/29/2017, John Karls updated the proposal while changing the title to “Is The Fed Gov (NIH) Funding Nazi-Style Death Camps?” for which it is respectfully suggested the correct answer is “not yet, but soon.”

The up-dating comprised 4 postings regarding the Salk Institute announcing the creation of Human-Pig Chimeras for purposes of cloning human organs for transplant to the human whose DNA had been combined with pig DNA.

[“Chimera” is an animal created from DNA of two different species.]

Salk’s Human-Pig Chimeras were aborted before birth.

Under the 8/5/2016 NIH rules, there is NO PROHIBITION against the creation of Chimeras that have cloned human organs, even if doing so requires that the Chimera has a human or near-human brain.

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REQUIREMENT OF A NEW TITLE

As can be seen from the beginning of the 1/29/2017 posting entitled “Human-Pig Chimeras - Decent Behavior Despite Open Barn Door” and the conclusion of the 1/29/2017 posting entitled “Is The Fed Gov (NIH) Funding Nazi-Style Death Camps?” - John Karls took the moral stand that he would have nothing to do with our March 8th meeting unless it focused on this topic.

To obtain the last 2 votes for a majority at our 2/8/2017 meeting, John had to agree NOT to use either the original title “Clone Rights...” or the updated title referring to “Nazi-Style Death Camps.”

The 2 holdouts suggested a title based on “chimeras.”

Fortunately, America is familiar with a fictional chimera - Sesame Street’s Miss Piggy who obviously has a human brain and presumably has human organs that are “ripe for the picking”!!!

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SUGGESTED MEETING MATERIALS

For anyone who has not seen “The Island” (2005) starring Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor, please do so. (It can be rented from Amazon.com for $3.99.)

And even if you have seen it, it is strongly recommended that you view it again while thinking of Scarlett Johansson as a Miss Piggy chimera.

In addition, you should read all of the 7 items contained in John Karls’ topic proposal. They are reproduced in a special section below entitled “Original Proposal Reference Materials.”

And as usual, you should read everything else that any of us posts in the “Participant Comments” or regular “Reference Materials” sections.
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johnkarls
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Original Proposal

Post by johnkarls »

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From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The Approximately 150 Recipients of Our Weekly E-mail
Subject: Killing Millions of Clones for Their Human Organs – For March 8th
Date: Sat, February 11, 2017
Attachments:
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Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is Wednesday evening, March 8th, at the Salt Lake Public Library (210 East 400 South).

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OUR TOPIC FOR MARCH 8TH -- KILLING MILLIONS OF CLONES FOR THEIR HUMAN ORGANS

As stated on the face of our bulletin board (http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org) in the first section:

“We are a U.S. public-public monthly discussion group founded in the Fall of 2005 … The focus is usually a book but frequently comprises only news items from magazines/newspapers/etc.”

As explained on the face of our bulletin board for its fifth section, last August the U.S. Government’s National Institute of Health (“NIH”) proposed changes to its 2009 “Human Stem-Cell Research Guidelines” to provide funding for the creation of “chimeras” (animals that are created from DNA of two different species) in order to grow cloned human organs that can be “harvested” for transplant into the human whose DNA has been used to create the chimera.

The chimera, of course, dies.

Under the new NIH rules, there is no prohibition against creating chimeras that have human or near-human brains.

The Salk Institute has now produced a Human-Pig Chimera since pigs are about the same size as humans and it takes less than a year from fertilization for a Human-Pig Chimera to reach full size (about 200 pounds).

The ethical question that Yours Truly proposed on 8/5/2016 for us to consider -- since there is near-universal agreement that your essence is your brain (you can replace any other organ and you are still you) -- is whether it should be permissible to grow chimeras with human or near-human brains.

The proposal notes that this should also be a criminal-law question, whether or not federal funds are used to conduct the research.

In other words, whether killing a chimera with a human brain is murder.

The proposal questions whether we, as a society, are different from Nazi Germany if we condone “death camps” in which potentially millions of chimeras with human brains will be killed for their organs.

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RESOURCE MATERIALS

For anyone who has not seen “The Island” (2005) starring Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor, please do so. [It can be rented from Amazon.com for $3.99.]

And even if you have seen it, it is strongly recommended that you view it again while thinking of Scarlett Johansson as a Human-Pig Chimera who will be killed for her organs as soon as the human being whose DNA was used to create Scarlett Johansson needs a transplant.

In addition, you should read all of the 7 items contained in Yours Truly’s original proposal. They are reproduced in sixth section of our bulletin board (http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org) entitled “Original Proposal Reference Materials” --

(1) 8/5/2016 -- “Clone Rights -- Involuntary Soldiers, Sex Slaves, Lab Rats, Etc. (including the text of the NIH proposed changes to the 2009 Human Stem-Cell Research Guidelines as published in the 8/6/2016 Federal Register)

(2) 8/5/2016 -- “What If Yale U’s 50% Human DNA Were All Dominant Traits???” (including the Discussion Outline for our 4/9/2008 meeting 8 years ago)

(3) 8/9/2016 -- “Marked Changes To The 2009 Human Stem-Cell Research Guidelines”

(4) 1/29/2017 -- “Human-Pig Chimeras -- Decent Behavior Despite Open Barn Door” (including 1/26/2017 Washington Post article)

(5) 1/31/2017 -- “Is the Fed Gov (NIH) Funding Nazi-Style Death Camps?” (to which it is respectfully suggested that the correct answer is “not yet, but soon”)

(6) 1/31/2017 -- “The Human-Pig Chimera Report From The Salk Institute” (ver batim text)

(7) 2/7/2017 -- “The Article in Britain’s ‘Nature’ About Rat-Mouse Chimeras” (ver batim text)

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RSVP’S REQUESTED BY NEXT FRIDAY

In accordance with our quorum-revision policy of 6/12/2013, instead of waiting until the last week before each monthly meeting to request RSVP’s and canceling if we do not have our minimum quorum of six, RSVP’s are requested in our first-of-the-monthly-cycle weekly e-mail.

Those who have RSVP’d will be informed immediately when we reach six so that they can proceed to read the materials with assurance that a discussion will take place.

If there are not six RSVP’s by 11:59 pm next Friday, then next week’s weekly e-mail will announce that the 3/8/2016 meeting is cancelled.

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SKYPE PARTICIPATION

Non-SLCounty residents (and residents who are out of town) are invited to participate in our meeting via Skype.

If you would like to do so, please press your reply button and type “request participation via Skype” and we will contact you to make appropriate arrangements.

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We hope to see all of you on March 8th to discuss “Killing Millions of Clones for Their Human Organs.”

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

NB: Please do NOT block our e-mail because you are too embarrassed to request a deletion -- 10 of our approximately 150 regular e-mail recipients use Comcast.net which has an algorithm blocking all e-mails from a website for which a certain percentage of recipients have requested blockage AND 3 of our regular meeting attendees who use Comcast.net now can NOT receive our weekly e-mails.

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