Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

  4th Degree - The Great Debate [13:43]
  [also known as "Conflict At Ground Zero"]
  music by Myung, Petrucci, Portnoy, Rudess
  lyrics by John Petrucci

   "A Gallup snapshot poll taken immediately after              [Both Channels]
    President Bush's speech on funding embryonic
    stem cell research last night shows that half of 
    Americans approve of his decision, 25% do not,
    and still another 25% aren't sure what to think."

   "Most people don't even know what stem cells are."           [Left Channel]
   
   "Who's going to scream the loudest, will it be the           [Both Channels]
    right-to-lifer's, will it be the scientists? 
    And now what's going to happen is that 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'm concerned about it, Christopher Reeves is               [Right Channel]
    concerned about it, everyone is concerned about it, 
    but the big question is, do the ends justify the 
    means? And when we talk about research, yes we can 
    cure a lot things speculatively, but where's the 
    proof?"
    
   "These developing human beings that they're talking          [Left Channel]
    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         [Right Channel]
    that happens."
   
   "We're on a road where we really don't where we're           [Both Channels]
    going as far as what's next, we're talking about 
    harvesting embryos, we're talking about this, we're 
    talking about that, but what is the cost?"
    
   "How could we possibly abandon the research?"                [Left Channel]
   
                             [The following samples are played simultaneously]
                             
   "Well that's right, it's the old question, I mean if         [Left Channel]
    you think the research is good, of course you'd have 
    no problem at all with it. It's only if you think the 
    research involved is something evil, then you get the 
    question of ‘Is it okay to [???]?’ And the truth of 
    the matter is that we do that all the time with organ 
    transplants, I mean with people that are killed or 
    murdered or people who're just victims of automobile 
    accidents, abandoning all [???]. We do take their organs 
    and we look to try to save other lives. We try to [???] 
    all the time. [???] kill someone [???]"
    
   "And I'd like to mention that we don't have the answers      [Left Channel]
    yet. We need to put the money into something that'll 
    hopefully get those answers in the future. Listen, 
    we're out of time."

   "And in this country there was a great outrage of [???]
    from all points. From churches, mainline [???]...  
    that you can not use [???]... to cure [???]...
    and as it turned out [???]... great outrage... [???]"       [Right Channel]

  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

  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
  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
  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

                             [The following samples are played simultaneously]
                             
   "...research, scientific advancement. And I know we're       [Left Channel]
    going down a road that we may not know where we end, but 
    we...that's exactly what science is all about. I'm very sorry,
    but I you know I do feel sympathy for people who whose spines 
    are...have uh have been severed. There's a possibility we
    might be able to cure them. I am concerned about a cure for 
    juvenile diabetes. And if these types of scientific 
    advancements can cure these diseases, then quite candidly 
    I think there ought to be at least, what President Bush has 
    said, some limited research."
    
   "One of the one of the big questions that still remains for  [Right Channel]
    me though is that all of these embryos that are are set or
    uh being discarded for example um is this worse than just 
    throwing those away?"
    
   "We don't know if they're going to be discarded. All of a    [Right Channel]
    sudden, I mean, we're going to say, uh we started with the 
    ones that are going to be discarded. Then all of a sudden, 
    we're going to have people being solicited to donate parts 
    of their their anatomy to harvest parts of, like, a part 
    of what have you. I mean that's how's it starts."
    
   "Even though if they start soliciting, women and men in      [Right Channel]
    fertility clinics have extra embryos."
    
   "Stem cells come from developing human beings and that they  [Right Channel]
    shouldn't be uh experimented on in a way 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, her grandson, that that uh is     [Left Channel]
    uh paraplegic. And if there is a small chance that my son 
    would be able to have any feeling and be able to walk, I 
    am for it."
    
   "a human body having evolving for tens of thousands of       [Right Channel]
    years and we're just injecting cells from embryos into 
    people's brains, and and how do we come to to do something 
    like that?"