Dream Theater Degree 4: the Great Debate Lyrics:
[also known as "Conflict At Ground Zero"] [music by Myung, Petrucci, Portnoy, Rudess] [lyrics by John Petrucci] "A gallop snapshot poll taken immediately
after President Bush's speach on
funding embryonic stem cell research last
night shows that half of Americans
approve of his decision, 25% do not, and
still another 25% are not sure what
to think."
"Most people don't even know what stem cells are."
"Who is going to scream the loudest? Will
it be the right-to-lifers or will
it be the scientists? And now what is going
to happen is there will be a
tremendous amount of lobbying in
Washington, D.C.: scientists,
entertainers, people who want to see this
research - will be coming forth."
"I am concerned about it. Christopher
Reeves is concerned about it.
Everyone is concerned about it. The big
question is do the ends justify
the means? When we talk about research, yes,
we can cure a lot of things...
speculatively. But, where is the proof?"
"These developing human beings that you
are talking about, these embryos,
were produced in an artificial,
scientific environment. In vitro
fertilization is not God's will."
"That doesn't make them any less human,
though, after that happens."
"We are on a road where we really don't
know where we are going as far as
what's next. We are talking about harvesting
embryos. We are talking about
this, we are talking about that, but what is the cost?"
"How could we possibly abandon the research?"
"That is right. That is the old question?
If you think the research is good
then you may not have a problem with it.
It is only if you think the
research is questionable that you get
defensive about it. (You do have time
to research these embryos later if we
choose to do so. While people are
suffering, we are not truly certain that
this will provide a cure.)"
"And there was a great outrage in the
conservative churches... You cannot
use developing humans... At that point in
time they turn into humans."
"I feel that abandoning this research
could be a mistake. Researching this
may allow us to save other lives or at
least to improve the quality of
lives."
"We do not have the answers,
yet. We need to put the money where
we will get
those answers in the future. Listen,
we are out of time."
What if someone said
Promise lies ahead
Hopes are high in certain scientific circles
Life won't have to end
You could walk again
What if someone said
Problems lie ahead
They've uncovered something highly controversial
The right to life is strong
Can't you see it's wrong
Humankind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Searching for a cure
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
Anarchistic moral vision
[ Find more Lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.org/Nvh ]Industries of death
Facing violent opposition
Unmolested breathe
Ethic inquisitions breed
Antagonistic views
Right wing sound bite premonitions
In a labyrinth of rules
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Taking life to save life
This embryonic clay
Wrapped in fierce debate
Would be thrown away
Or otherwise discarded
Some of us believe
It may hold the key
To treatment of disease
And secrets highly guarded
Are you justified
Are you justified
Are you justified
Justified in taking
Life to save life
Life to save life
Life to save life
Human kind has reached a turning point
Poised for conflict at ground zero
Ready for a war
Do we look to our unearthly guide
Or to white coat heroes
Turn to the light
Don't be frightened of the shadows it creates
Turn to the light
Turning away would be a terrible mistake
We're reaching
But have we gone too far
Harvesting existence
Only to destroy
Carelessly together
We are sliding
Someone else's future
Four days frozen still
Someone else's fate
We are deciding
Miracle potential
Sanctity of life
Faced against each other
We're divided
Should we push the boundaries
Or should we condemn
Moral guilt and science
Have collided
Turn to the light
We defy our own mortality these days
Turn to the light
Pay attention to the questions we have raised
"One of the big questions that still
remains for me, though, is that all of
these embryos that are sent or will be
discarded - is this worse than just
throwing those away?"
"You do not know that all of these will
be discarded. All of a sudden you
say which ones will be discarded. And all
of sudden you have people being
solicited for parts of their anatomy. Then
they harvest parts of people's
bodies. That is how it starts."
"People are not soliciting; there are
fertility clinics that have extra
embryos."
"The research is a scientific advancement.
I know we are going down a road
that we may not know where we end, but that
is exactly what science is all
about. I am very sorry, but I do feel
sympathy for those whose spines have
been severed... There is a possibility
that we might cure them. I am
concerned about a cure for juvenile
diabetes and if these types of
scientific advancement can cure these
diseases, then quite candidly I think
there ought to be at least what President
Bush has proposed: some limited
research."
"Stem cells come from developing human
beings and they should not be
experimented on that doesn't make sense or
that is unethical, but at the
same time there is great promise."
"I have a 28-year old son who is
paraplegic. And if there is a small
chance that my son can be able to have
feeling and be able to walk then I am
all for it."
"Human beings have been evolving for 10's
of thousands of years and we are
just injecting cells from embryos into
people's brains. How do we come to
do something like that?"
Lyrics: Degree 4: the Great Debate, Dream Theater [end] 