Stem Cell Foolishness
The bumper sticker line for the anti Stem Cell movement has been: “Some lines should not be crossed.” This has been the central argument for the Presidents veto. The “line” in question is whether the federal government should fund research derived from human embryos. Stem Cell Research shows great promise for cures of diseases as diverse as Parkinson’s, Alzhimer’s and Cancer. The best hope for these cures come from Embryos donated from Fertility clinics. Hundreds of embryos are created by these clinics for every woman hoping to have a child. The numbers of frozen embryos in storage number in the hundreds of thousands. Hundreds more are destroyed everyday. The amount of embryos trapped within this system dwarfs that of the abortions conducted in this country each year.
The Presidents spokesperson, Tony Snow told the press recently that: "The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder,(the President) is one of them,". There is a segment of the country that strongly supports the President on this issue and agree with his assessment. The problem comes when we look at the larger picture of presidential policy and the federal budget.
On August 9, 2001 the President announced that he would support federal funding of Embryonic Cell research. He made a moral distinction between using destroyed embryos and destroying embryos in order for them to be used. His only restriction was that federal funds only be spent on existing Cell lines. He claimed at the time that there were as many as 60 cell lines already derived from human embryos that could be used for experimentation. Most of these groups of cells had been in labs for years and were no longer viable to continue the work researchers hoped would one day cure a variety of diseases. Topics not covered in his decision were where these embryos were coming from. No one asked him if private funds should be used to do research on what the President sees as a human being. The President doesn’t intend to make this research illegal. Nor is he pushing to have the fertility clinics, that produce thousands of unwanted embryos, shut down. It must be admitted that the President is on shaky moral ground at best, even by those that share his view of the issue.
Consider that research and development spending for the military was 74 billion dollars last year. This research did not cause death to a single embryo but the end result and whole point of the research was to find new and better ways of killing people. Why is it so much easier to justify the killing of fully functional adult humans? With such a broad range of inconsistencies in the Presidents policy he gains very little political or moral ground. What he looses is a united political party behind his agenda. He looses the trust of a public that in large majority disagree with his position. With this veto, the first while in office, he puts himself at risk of being a Lame Duck President even while his party maintains control of Congress. What the public looses by this decision is far greater. We have lost precious time on the path to finding cures for some of most debilitating and tragic diseases.
The Presidents spokesperson, Tony Snow told the press recently that: "The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder,(the President) is one of them,". There is a segment of the country that strongly supports the President on this issue and agree with his assessment. The problem comes when we look at the larger picture of presidential policy and the federal budget.
On August 9, 2001 the President announced that he would support federal funding of Embryonic Cell research. He made a moral distinction between using destroyed embryos and destroying embryos in order for them to be used. His only restriction was that federal funds only be spent on existing Cell lines. He claimed at the time that there were as many as 60 cell lines already derived from human embryos that could be used for experimentation. Most of these groups of cells had been in labs for years and were no longer viable to continue the work researchers hoped would one day cure a variety of diseases. Topics not covered in his decision were where these embryos were coming from. No one asked him if private funds should be used to do research on what the President sees as a human being. The President doesn’t intend to make this research illegal. Nor is he pushing to have the fertility clinics, that produce thousands of unwanted embryos, shut down. It must be admitted that the President is on shaky moral ground at best, even by those that share his view of the issue.
Consider that research and development spending for the military was 74 billion dollars last year. This research did not cause death to a single embryo but the end result and whole point of the research was to find new and better ways of killing people. Why is it so much easier to justify the killing of fully functional adult humans? With such a broad range of inconsistencies in the Presidents policy he gains very little political or moral ground. What he looses is a united political party behind his agenda. He looses the trust of a public that in large majority disagree with his position. With this veto, the first while in office, he puts himself at risk of being a Lame Duck President even while his party maintains control of Congress. What the public looses by this decision is far greater. We have lost precious time on the path to finding cures for some of most debilitating and tragic diseases.
posted by kamuizot at 7:28 PM
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