PEPSI: For Those Who Think (of eating their) Young

        The wolf spider represents a dark side of the animal kingdom.

 

        The wolf spider eats its own young.

 

 Not all of them.

 

        Just enough of them to ensure  there is adequate   food supply to accommodate the remaining members of the brood.

 

        It's a  cruel version of the utilitarian philosophy that the end justifies the means, Mother Nature style.

 

             The Pepsi generation now faces its own form of utilitarianism run amok.

 

         Here's a story flying low on the radar of the mainstream media.

 

        The Senomyx Corporation is a high-tech flavor enhancement research development company.

 

        Senomyx recently signed a $30 million deal with Pepsi to create even more realistic artificial sweeteners.

 

        Maybe Pepsi will one day obtain the Holy Grail of beverage manufacturing: diet sodas that don't taste like diet.

 

        And maybe Senomyx is up to the challenge.

 

        Here's the problem.

 

        Senomyx has discovered that using human taste receptors is the most efficient way to isolate and identify flavor particles.

 

        So where is Senomyx getting these human taste receptors?

 

        From aborted babies.

 

        You read that right.

 

        From aborted babies.

 

        Pro-life groups want Pepsi to discontinue its relationship with Senomyx.

 

 Pepsi shareholders have introduced a resolution to have the second largest cola company in the world distance itself from this macabre practice.

 

        What's next? Lampshades from the skin of those gassed in concentration camps?

 

        Oh yeah, I forgot. The Nazis already did that.

 

        I don't know about you, but my quest for the tastiest diet cola doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy about using the remains of innocent children to satisfy that desire.

 

        Pepsi has responded to the uproar in typical corporate bottom-line fashion.

 

        Pepsi's consumer relations department issued a blanket e-mail that said we must recognize the trade-off.

 

The missive emphasized that Senomyx techniques would help create "low-calorie great tasting beverages for consumers."

 

        Well.

 

        Now there's a good reason.

 

        What is wrong with us?

 

        Are we so dedicated to the technology of creature comforts that anything is justified?

 

        We've all heard about the lawsuits over foreign objects showing up in food products.

 

        I just hope you don't find a little piece of a fingernail in a diet Pepsi someday.

 

        A little piece of a very tiny fingernail.

 

        That'd be gross.

 

        It would also be a sign that we've sunk to a new low.

 

        A frightening science fiction type of low.

 

        Dr. Frankenstein meets Madison Avenue.

 

        I don't know about you, but until Pepsi steps away from the idea of fetus enhanced products, I'll be drinking Coca-Cola.

 

I'll let somebody else deal with that tiny fingernail.

 

And the moral implications inherent in mixing the big business of abortion with  big business.