Intervista a Leon Kass

Su The American Enterprise troviamo una lunga intervista a Leon Kass, l’arci-conservatore ex presidente del Consiglio di Bioetica degli Usa («“Live” with Leon Kass», luglio-agosto 2006). L’intervista non è particolarmente interessante – l’intervistato appare stanco e ancora più pessimista del solito – tranne che in un punto, davvero rivelatore, là dove Kass evidenzia ciò che lo separa dagli attivisti anti-abortisti:

TAE: Your disagreements with liberal bioethicists are well known, but could you tell us more about your disagreements with conservatives?
KASS: First of all I want to say that although I think some pro-lifers’ views are too narrow, they deserve credit for recognizing how easy it is to exploit and abuse the early stages of life for utilitarian benefits. They deserve credit for bearing witness, even if they don’t win battles. They are defending something deeply important to all of us.
However, I think they take too narrow a view of what’s at issue with these bioethical decisions. Some of the pro-life organizations don’t officially care whether babies are produced in bottles, so long as no embryo was killed in the process. I had one leading pro-life activist tell me in private that they were not sure they could support our proposed ban on transferring human embryos to the body of an animal because it might be the only way in which you could rescue a human embryo. I said, “Do you mean you would rescue an embryo by giving it a pig for a mother?” And this person said, “Yes, if necessary.” This seems to me an unhealthy monomania.