In an article in the Times today, William Rees-Mogg asks, “Whatever happened to the ‘yuk’ factor.” Referring to the passage of the Human Fertilisaiton and Embryology Bill through the House of Lords, he writes, “In 1990 it was not just the hereditary peers who found the idea of animal-human hybrids simply too disgusting to be tolerated. It was the common response, the “yuk” factor as a test of the limits of scientific experimentation.”
Yet that ‘yuk’ has been overcome, and it is surely a significant signpost as to where our civilization is going, especially compared with whence it has come.
The end of the Second World War revealed to the general public the true extent of what had been happening in Nazi Germany, particularly in the concentration camps.
One aspect of these camps which caused particular horror was that human beings had been used as subjects for scientific experiments. The mere name of Dr Josef Mengele was enough to send a shudder of horror through anyone in these islands who knew what he had done in the name of ‘medicine’.
The horror, however, was not chiefly at the nature of the experiments themselves. It must remembered, these were the days when vivisection was regularly carried out, not only in search of cures for diseases, but to test cosmetics — and even out of sheer curiosity. Remember Pavlov’s dogs?
The Times article can be found here. Be sure to read the comments.
Comments:
England told God to p&^% off and it is showing. Let Islam have have them, like the Assyrians and Babylonians to the ancient Israelites. And yes the comments are creepy and disturbing.