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A day
at the Sonoma County Fair
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
A lesson in clumsiness and mortality came my way at the end of June when
I took a crushing fall. I broke six ribs. It has been an experience I
could have done without.
Until September 2004,
I had survived childhood and adult life without a single broken bone.
That record was shattered when I broke my ankle. This time it was ribs.
Hopefully there won’t be an encore.
As part of recuperation, I was able to escape the excessive heat of
Indiana for two weeks with family in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County,
California. Having time to read the morning paper in the morning was
pure luxury. Time with family is a treasure. My sister has three
children. All three live in the same town as their dad and mom, most
unusual in these days of widely dispersed children. It was great family
time.
Sonoma County is a beautiful part of the world where hills and valleys
are decorated by an ever-increasing number of wineries. Grapes are to
Sonoma what corn is to Indiana.
A summer attraction is the Sonoma County Fair held during the last week
of July and the first week of August.
In addition to the usual fair stuff, it hosts two special attractions: a
spectacular flower show and racing. This year the flower show was
exceptional, worth the detour as the guide books say. As for racing, in
addition to thoroughbreds, the racing card included quarterhorses,
Arabians and mules.
When it comes to racing, mules are full of surprises. Known for their
stubbornness, they seem to take special delight in throwing a jockey or
taking an erratic turn somewhere short of the finish line.
The biggest name in Sonoma County mule racing this year was Idaho Gem,
the world’s first cloned mule. He is one of three mules genetically
engineered. Each was cloned from the brother of a champion racing mule.
They have the same chromosomal DNA but each had a different surrogate
mare, which is thought to explain differences in their personalities and
racing abilities.
The mules have been genetically engineered by a team led by Dr. Gordon
Woods, a veterinary scientist at the University of Idaho. In Idaho Gem’s
first five races, he finished first twice. The three times he failed to
win he came in second, third and fourth. The day I enjoyed his talents,
he lost in a photo finish, but in the process beat six other mules.
The first cloned animal was a sheep: Dolly. She died at the age of 6 of
lung disease, which was only half her life expectancy. The mules, by
contrast, appear to be healthy. It took six years of trial and error
before Idaho Gem was born in 2003. He has had constant monitoring,
examination and attention since.
Of course, there is more to Idaho Gem than mule races. The hope is that
he will provide a breakthrough in cancer research.
The doctor in charge of the cloning project has noted that only 8
percent of horses die of cancer, compared to 24 percent of humans. He
also points to research that suggests that there is no record of a
stallion with prostate cancer, but one in six men are diagnosed with
that disease. The doctor has discovered a possible relationship between
cancer and calcium levels inside human cells. Humans have about three
times the amount of calcium in their cells as horses. Interesting stuff!
I’m neither a scientist nor an ethicist, but as a priest I firmly
believe God has given us the Church to dispense the salvific graces won
for us by Jesus Christ via his life, death and resurrection, and that
the Church provides the guidance we humans need to lead moral lives and
give glory to the Triune God. The Church teaches that human life is
sacred and eternal. When it comes to the debate over embryonic stem-cell
research and cloning (the chigger I wrote about in my last column
continues to itch), I am out of my league. So, I look to the Church for
guidance. The guidance given is that when it comes to research, the
sanctity of human life must always be respected.
This brings faith into conflict with the direction some are taking in
the effort to find cures for a long list of diseases.
Medical advances over the course of my lifetime have been startling.
Life expectancy has incremented significantly. Scientists are to be
praised for their dedication to the elimination of diseases. But, one
must question the current cry from some to separate religion from
science.
To argue that the cure for multiple diseases depends only upon embryonic
stem-cell research is disingenuous. There are other avenues, avenues
that respect life from its earliest beginnings. As scientists argue over
precisely when human life begins, the Catholic Church insists that our
presumption must favor life and its sacredness. Clearly human life
begins long before birth. Each of us once was a lowly embryo. How we
became such an embryo has moral and ethical implications. What is done
with embryos does as well.
Even if some diseases prove curable through embryonic stem-cell
research, as proponents insist will happen if adequate funding is
provided, the fact something can be done does not mean it should be
done.
I may have been the only one at the Sonoma County Fair to be focused on
that as Idaho Gem ran his way to a second-place finish. The research
that brought him to the race track may never in fact lead to a cure for
cancer. But, then, maybe it will.
The Idaho team does not support human cloning. And, its research does
not employ the destruction of human embryos. That, it seems to me, makes
the story of Idaho Gem worth telling. |
