I have said in the past that some liberals want to open up embryonic research because it sends the message that the embryo is just a "thing". That is the big struggle. Pro-life people want you to think an embryo is a human being, and pro-abortion people want you to think an embryo is just protoplasm. Using embryos for research helps forward the notion they are not babies...
Well, it looks like abortion lovers have lost another tool to further their mission.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Researchers make stem cells from skin
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Well, embryos are not babies. Otherwise they would be called babies and not embryos. And vetoing federal funding of embryonic stemcell research does not prohibit the states from doing it.
Perhaps you can argue that Bush is just being a great champion of federalism in this case, but in light of Kennedy's No Child Left Behind bill, along with the creation of the biggest health care entitlement since LBJ, I find that hard to believe. Bush's veto is the standard Rove-Delay pattern of behaving any way they please and thinking they can get by politically as long as they juice up enough of the ignorant fundie vote on matters of low consequence.
I'm not saying that the funding stemcell research should be a prerogative of the federal government-- certainly not. But the Bush administration's motivation here is less than principled. Seriously, the prescription drug benefit is going to cost 1.2 TRILLION dollars over the next decade, and the Democrats, who are silently rejoicing, are clearly not going to repeal it despite their phony criticism. And Bush gets a big round of applause by rightwing idiots for vetoing something that would cost 39 million a year.
I don't see it in quite so cynical a way. I feel he's right on one issue and wrong on another and I don't feel the need to assign or assume anything about his motivations. I just don't have the old ESP quite developed enough to do so.
But you're right, Jason. Those aren't babies. But they are human beings in an early stage of development called the "embryonic" stage.
I heard a researcher in an interview say that to others in his field, and he might have agreed, I don't recall, to others there is always the challenge or the nagging sense that they just haven't found out how to make it work the way they believe it will work. That's why they keep trying. They feel that once they figure it out, all disease and injury will be eradicated (my hyperbole). But that doesn't excuse the fact that if they care about helping mankind, they should probably be working with those who are making progress without killing people who have no way to vote on the subject. There's simply nothing that proves they aren't human beings entitled to all the rights to life of every born human being. I don't believe it's human to feel otherwise.
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