From: Randy S (cryofan@mylinuxisp.com)
Date: Tue Jul 08 2003 - 08:01:56 MDT
I wonder if Falwell was paid by the pharmaceutical cartel to print this.
Anyway, it mistakenly, but cleverly, connects the LEF with Alcor in order to
drag in cryonics and Ted Williams, all in the interests of demonizing cheap
overseas drugs which would lower drug prices here in the USA. A clever but
transparent ploy to tar cheap drugs with taboo cryonics. Transparent to me,
but to the soccer mom and dad masses with their kids and car payments and
mortgages and their vacations....they will probably never notice....
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20030707-090423-3152r.htm
Excerpts from the article:
Choose life, not drug importation
By Jerry Falwell
The battle to safeguard human life has been raging for decades, creating
strong alliances built on shared values and common passions. Yet, for those
in the pro-life movement, it is essential not to lose sight of the big
picture when innocent lives are being threatened. When I see even strong
pro-life voices in Congress grappling with an issue that threatens life, I
want their supporters to know it.
Importation of foreign drugs into the tightly protected U.S. market is one
of those issues. The idea is that, since medicines can be cheaper outside
the country, we should bring them back into the country at that lower price.
Sounds simple, but unfortunately, drug importation is about much more than
getting cheap prescriptions. It's also partially about easing access in our
country to abortion drugs like RU-486, euthanasia drugs and "life extension"
drugs of questionable merit and potentially harmful effect.
Would drug importation make non-FDA approved drugs legal, or put
prescription drugs in the hands of those without prescriptions? No.
Would it make it easier for those who crave deadly drugs to get them?
Unquestionably.
The issue centers on a piece of legislation known as the Pharmaceutical
Market Access Act. According to news accounts, the bill is scheduled to come
to a vote within the next two weeks. It would serve to essentially open the
floodgates to drugs from outside the country, allowing drugs with unknown
origins, production methods, packaging guidelines and transportation
standards into the American prescription drug supply.
Some of them will be real pills, on which another country's socialized
health care has imposed a lower price. But some will be counterfeit, some
copied and some even poisoned. Once these drugs hit the American drug
supply, there is no controlling where they go and whom they impact. What's
more, ratcheting open the walls that protect our market for medicines means
that those who want to import bizarre and unethical medications will have
that much more opportunity to do so.
Consider those supporting drug importation off Capitol Hill, and that
perverse motivation becomes clear.
For instance, drug importation advocates regularly cite research from the
Alcor Life Extension Foundation in their arguments. But the so-called Life
Extension Foundation (LEF), ironically, is a rabidly anti-life organization.
It has cited RU-486 as an "anti-aging" medication that once just missed its
top 10 list of life-extending drugs. LEF has demonstrated its disregard for
human life not only by advocating cloning but embryonic stem cell research
to reverse the signs of aging. Those who support taking the lives of unborn
children to support the selfish desire to live a longer and fuller life are
not the allies we hope to see advocating public policy changes for America.
That is only the beginning, however. LEF also conducts bizarre cryogenics
experiments. They are reported to have the body of baseball slugger Ted
Williams frozen for eventual reanimation. The president of the organization,
Saul Kent, likewise froze his mother's severed head, prompting a three-year
investigation into the possibility that she was euthanized. And they traffic
in untold numbers of questionable "life-extending" medications that are the
subject of numerous federal investigations - raising a significant question
about their motivations for advocating drug importation.
Supporters of drug importation are also relying upon a new book by Katharine
Greider, "The Big Fix."
...
The fact is that both the LEF and Ms. Greider have as priorities opening
American drug markets as wide as possible. These are not the allies that
pro-life members of Congress should be working with on issues of such great
pith and moment. Their priority is not cheaper drugs for our seniors - the
priority of the well-meaning members of Congress who support drug
importation - but instead, to get easier access to abortion and to bizarre
and untested therapies outside the country.
Those concerned about innocent human life, as well as those concerned about
the lives of anyone who takes medications in America, should call on
pro-life members of Congress to stand by their commitment to life and to
reject the misguided research of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and
Katharine Greider.
...
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