He's Fristin' Kidding Me!

In addition to the hypocrisy of Bush's 1999 Futile Care Law vs. his current, and politically expedient, "culture" of life, it seems that Senate Majority Leader, and culture of life trumpeteer, also has some inconsistent pre-Rove views on life and death. How he can be pro-life and for baby killing at the same time?

"Frist wrote a book in 1989 called Transplant where he advocated changing the definition of 'brain dead' to include anencephalic babies. Anencephalic babies are in the same state as Terri Schiavo except that she suffered a physical trauma that put her into a vegetative state while the anencephalic babies are born that way.

This remarkable discovery buttresses the argument that Frist's advocacy for Schiavo is wholly political. How does he explain this remarkable inconsistency? Here is the relevant passage on Frist as quoted by the New Republic in 2003:

'And, although Frist writes frequently about the ethical issues surrounding transplants--for example, the question of when death begins--he approaches these issues in starkly scientific terms, with little patience for religious objections.

'Near the end of the book, for example, Frist suggests changing the legal definition of 'brain death' to include anencephalic babies, who are born with a fatal neurological disorder but show just the slightest hint of brain-stem activity. Such a change would make it possible to harvest their organs for transplant--something the Catholic Church and pro-life groups oppose. 'Three thousand anencephalic babies were born a year, enough to solve our demand many times over--but we never used them.'' [The New Republic, 1/27/03]

It would seem to me that even an anencephalic baby would have a soul and therefore be entitled to the same options for life that other babies have - even if expectancy isn't very long. A natural death might mean that the organs cannot be suitable for harvesting and transplants but how can a pro-life doctor even suggest using these babies using these babies as spare part repositories?

With parental approval, I might not have a problem with a baby, who has no chance, giving the gift of life to multiple people. But Bill Frist definitely should.