Embryonic research
As the Senate debates embryonic research, it is important to reject the notion that humans have rights simply by virtue of being human.
The point of rights is to promote the interests of rights-holders. A never-sentient embryo lacks an interest in developing into a self-aware person because there is no psychological link between the embryo and the potential person.
Suppose a transformation will occur after you fall asleep tonight and that the person who will awake will bear no psychological relationship to the former you. In such imaginary circumstances it would not be against your interests to die overnight. The case is even clearer when we consider embryos which have never had any desires or memories.
Persons who might develop from embryos do not have rights because they do not (yet) exist. Embryos lack rights because they have never experienced consciousness, let alone consciousness displaying continuity over time — the later being necessary before an interest in ongoing life can exist.
Meanwhile, people with disabilities who may benefit from research using embryos definitely have interests our politicians should be considering.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere NSW
Nuclear waste
As reported by Phillip Coorey in the Adelaide Advertiser (November 18), the federal government is to employ spin doctors to overcome public ignorance and to clear up misunderstandings about the central nuclear waste dump proposed for South Australia. Most government publications and speakers I have seen and heard try to give the impression that one central storage facility would do away with all those presently dotted around the country at sites where nuclear waste is created.
It was clearly explained by a speaker for the federal government at a public meeting I attended that, unless we stop creating nuclear waste entirely, we will still need all the current storage facilities at all the sites where the waste is created. He made it clear that the nuclear waste would only be transported to the central dump approximately each five years.
It would appear from this that the issue is really that the government is trying to get on side with the Sydney voters, who really don't want a nuclear reactor, but who might be persuaded to accept one if its waste was shipped elsewhere.
For the politicians with control of the national budget, the costs of hiring spin doctors and the extra handling costs of dealing with the associated hazards of transporting nuclear wastes is cheap — if they can get away with it.
Ron Gray
Australian Peace Committee
Adelaide
Warship visits
In the current international situation, it is in my view extreme folly not to cancel the proposed visit to Hobart by an American aircraft carrier. The recent national security warning issued by Canberra should be enough to make us all realise that we are now, as a result of our national government's backing for George W Bush's proposed war on Iraq, directly in the firing line.
The US warships that call here are directly implicated in the US policy of sanctions against the Iraqi people, as indeed are Australian warships, to our shame. Saddam Hussein is an evil man — but one the USA was happy to back and support for many years, even while he was gassing Kurdish minorities.
However, whether you agree with the policy of sanctions that make the civilians of Iraq the target or not — and many people here in Australia do not — there can be no doubt, especially after the Bali bomb, that Australian civilians are now targets of terrorism as a result of our close alignment with a USA that has broken many UN resolutions itself, and treats international law with total disregard and contempt.
We all know there is no defence against terrorist attacks that works — except to remove the motivations of those attacking us. US foreign policy for decades has been such as to create a generation who hate the USA in the Middle East — and for reasons that we should understand. More than 500,000 Iraqi children are estimated to have died so far as a direct result of US and Australian "economic" sanctions against Iraq.
It is time for our governments, state and federal, to start understanding the real root causes of terror attacks, and to change our USA-aligned foreign policy, which is the only way we can ever stop such criminal acts totally. In the meantime, we should minimise our personal risk by keeping US warships out of Australian ports.
Malcolm Fielding
Wattle Grove Tasmania
[Abridged.]
Spy planes
John Howard says that a "free trade" agreement between the greatest economic power on Earth, the USA, and Australia, might result in a "billion dollar" bonanza for Australian farmers. Might is right.
Howard's current economic policies have already resulted in a billion dollar bonanza for Boeing Corporation. Boeing has just sold four spy planes to Australia for $3.5 billion. Senator Hill took delivery at Boeing.
These spy in the sky planes, which are a bit out of date, are not "pie in the sky". They have been paid for by the Australian people. Doesn't Australia share all intelligence from US spy in the sky satellites, as a result of their free occupation of intelligence bases on Australian soil (Pine Gap).
Why do we need spy planes? The sale has been kept very secret from the Australian people — but, maybe, the truth will out.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls NSW
From Green Left Weekly, November 27, 2002.
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