Embryonic Stem Cells

Lets talk stem cells and the Federal Government shall we? I read today that two Democratic congressmen challenged President Bush to go ahead and veto an expansion of FEDERALLY FUNDED embryonic stem cell research, which he is on record as saying he will do.

U.S Rep. McDermott and Rep. Inslee are publicly pressing for passage of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005. This bill will lift Bush’s 2001 ban on FEDERAL FUNDING for research of new embryonic stem cell lines – it is scheduled for a House vote this week. Rep. McDermott said of President Bush’s veto threat, “Bring it on” and face the fallout of public opinion.

I am emphasizes will all caps the words Federal and Funding for a reason. So many people think, thanks to the continuing misinformation we get from major media, that Bush’s 2001 legislation is an outright ban on embryonic research – it is NOT! What Bush is saying is this; the Federal Government is not going to open the money spigot for research that involves the destruction of human life. Human embryonic stem cell research is completely legal. It always has been – Bush did NOTHING to change that. That is fact/myth number one. I am amazed how many of our “educated elite” either chooses to misrepresent that or are completely ignorant to that fact. Fact #2 is this: Bush is the first President to even fund human embryonic stem cell research. He is just requiring that the research be limited to the 22 lines already created.

The proponents of changing this bill tell us that embryonic stem cells (the ones you have to artificially create and then kill) offer soooo much more hope of saving people suffering from paralyses, heart disease, acne, etc. Ok, maybe not acne, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Lets stop here and interject a little free market common sense.

When a free market economy is allowed to work, it works well. It has a knack for picking the winners and losers without any help from the government. If, as Mr McDermott and the others would have us believe, embryonic stem cells are the only sure fire answer to solving the worlds health problems, then our free market economy would be pouring money in by the truck loads - they same way it did to technology “start ups” in the 90’s. The capitalists are more than willing to have their money first in line when it comes time for a new product to pay off. If, embryonic stem cell research has such a promising future, WHY is it imperative for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to fund it?! These elitist frauds are playing on everyone’s natural fear of death to spread their lies. “Do you want to die of heart disease? Well, then you better hope the Federal Government starts funding this research or else you certainly will.” Come on – give me a break.

We have access, free of moral dilemma, to thousands of stem cells right now – adult stem cells. Adult stem cells have treated over 58 diseases in human patients in published clinical studies; embryonic stem cells have not treated one.

This shouldn’t even be an argument related to morality at all. Substitute stem cell research with oil exploration, computer technology, whatever, and I still don’t think that the Federal Government should be spending my tax dollars to support private R&D. In 1999, even President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) acknowledged broad agreement in our society that early human embryos "deserve respect as a form of human life" (NBAC, Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research, 1999, p. ii). NBAC recommended funding of embryonic stem cell research, only if there were no alternatives. But there IS an alternative - adult stem cells.

Everyone wants a cure for paralysis, Alzheimer’s, etc. But don’t scare people into thinking that the ONLY way a cure can be found is if we create and kill thousands of human embryos for research. Those who tell you that just don’t have the facts.