Plumbing the depths

A silly woman writing in last Saturday’s Irish Independent on the recent decision by University College Cork to permit embryonic stem cell research:

“The college has vowed that its research will be carried out under strict ethical guidelines. Each project must first seek the approval of the University Research Ethics Board and scientists will only be allowed to work on embryos imported from approved sources in other jurisdictions.”

Ah, only embryos from approved sources. Thank goodness! For a minute I was afraid something unethical might be afoot.

Now, gentle reader, imagine a similar newspaper article from the 1940s, which might have read

“The institute has vowed that its research will be carried out under strict ethical guidelines. Each project must first seek the approval of the Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete and scientists will only be allowed to experiment on Jews imported from approved sources in other jurisdictions.”

The only difference is that the Nazis weren’t able to sugar-coat it like these moderns can. Embryos are very small; difficult to make much of a Schindler’s list out of them.