President Bush's veto today of a bill to allow embryonic stem cell research reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from Monty Python's Meaning of Life.
The Catholic father in the clip loses his job at the factory, and comes home to tell his many, many children that he can no longer afford to feed them. If the Church had allowed him to use a condom, he says, he wouldn't have to sell his children off for scientific research.
This scene is such a funny jab at the Church for its negative stance on condom use. At a time when the world faces overpopulation and starving children, one must not waste a single sperm.
This is almost as silly as discarding embryos at fertility clinics instead of using them to find a cure for diseases which cause much suffering. The children in the scene are analgous to the frozen embryos, who must be discarded (because they cannot be fed), instead of offending the Church by wasting a single sperm.
