Hollywood actress Sharon Stone hit the headlines recently, following her remarks that the massive earthquake which struck south-west China on May 12th could have occurred as a result of "bad karma" produced by Beijing's policy towards Tibet.
Now, according to LA Times celebrity gossip blog The Dish Rag, animal rights group PETA has offered Stone a free brain scan to determine whether her apparent lack of empathy can be attributed to frontal lobe damage.
In a letter addressed to the actress, dated July 1st, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk writes:
Scientific studies suggest that the prefrontal regions of the brains of people who lack empathy might be underdeveloped. Here's our offer: Would you allow PETA to pay for a scan of the prefrontal region of your brain to determine if comments and actions that seem to demonstrate a lack of empathy are the result of a physical defect?
...
You don't have to be a member of Mensa to understand that the suffering endured by animals in the fur industry is supported by your desire to to deck yourself out in fur. The type of thinking that would allow a perhaps otherwise intelligent woman to deny the cruel consequences of her actions can be established through a brain scan.
Although this is quite obviously a publicity stunt, it is backed up by scientific data. John Harlow's 1848 report of Phineas Gage demonstrated that the frontal lobes are involved in social cognition, and a number of studies published in recent years do indeed suggest that patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex have impaired moral decision-making skills and diminished feelings of empathy, embarrassment and guilt.
PETA's letter and Stone's "earthquake karma" interview are below.
- Log in to post comments
Why does the movie "Dumb and Dumberer" come to mind...?
Perhaps because Stone is dumb and PETA people are dumberer. Or is it the other way round?
So, disagree with PETA and you are neurologically impaired? I don't think so. The morality of using up resources for pets, who if given the choice would run away, is questionable, something future generation may find amusing. There is something fascist about this - what is the next step? Forbidding people with this "impairment" from having children? Forced brain surgery? I see - let's breed a race of people that loves pets more. And how do they know that Sharon Stone lacks compassion? And, if she truly is lacking something, where is their compassion for her. Puh-leeze - the lack of logic here is huge.
That's not nice!
It's bad enough that SS shows a complete disregard for the suffering of her own victims. Now she's showing that same disregard for the suffering of earthquake victims. And now she's similarly disregarding the real suffering of Tibetans by claiming it was somehow some mystical woo monster that decided to punish other innocents on their behalf, rather than the real causes of their suffering.
And now we've got Roberto blaming the victims even more. Shame on you!
Still, this is PETA accusing Sharon Stone of being brain damaged. Maybe they should look into getting a group discount for brain scans...
no, this seems to be PETA making fun of Stone... Not actually saying she has brain damage. She is a bitch though
According to Wikipedia, Stone "was hospitalized in late 2001 for a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which was diagnosed as a vertebral artery dissection rather than the more common ruptured aneurysm, and treated with an endovascular coil embolization."
So, who knows?
"The type of thinking that would allow a perhaps otherwise intelligent woman to deny the cruel consequences of her actions can be established through a brain scan."
And that refers to Ingrid too, correct?
she will probably accept oblivious to why they even offered.