Posted on 11/23/2008 5:35:14 PM PST by SoftTyranny
President-elect Barack Obama says he thinks it’s ethical to use embryos that would otherwise be destroyed for research into illnesses.
From the Associated Press:
When the Bush presidency ends, opponents of embryonic stem cell research will face a new political reality that many feel powerless to stop.
President-elect Barack Obama is expected to lift restrictions on federal money for such research. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has expressed interest in going ahead with legislation in the first 100 days of the new Congress if it still is necessary to set up a regulatory framework.
“We may lose it, but we’re going to continually fight it and offer the ethical alternative,” said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. “I don’t know what the votes will be in the new Congress … but it’s very possible we could lose this thing.”
Stem cells are the building blocks that turn into different kinds of tissue. Embryonic stem cells, unlike more mature versions, are blank slates. If scientists could control them, they could direct regenerative therapy, perhaps allowing a diabetic’s pancreas to begin produce insulin, for example.
Harvesting stem cells from four- or five-day-old embryos kills the embryo, which outrages opponents of this type of research. But supporters say hundreds of thousands of embryos stored in fertility clinics eventually will be destroyed anyway and that people should be allowed to donate them for research that could help others.
“I believe that it is ethical to use these extra embryos for research that could save lives when they are freely donated for that express purpose,” Obama wrote during the campaign in response to 14 questions from scientists, doctors and engineers.
Under President George W. Bush, federal money for research on human embryonic stems cells was limited to those stem cell lines, or families of constantly dividing cells, that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. No federal dollars could be used on research... Read the rest of this article here.
They continue to ignore the fact that embryonic stem cells have never been effective for anything except growing babies that is.
Adult stem have shown promise for successful treatment.
Seeing how fast 0bama is tap dancing to the center, I wonder if this, repeal of the Mexico City policy, and the nominations of pro-abort judges are going to be the only bones 0bama throws to the culture of death crowd.
You mean no FOCA?
Otherwise there's really no benefit in embryonic stem cells to anyone.
A f'kn waste of money -- but maybe the useless research can be used to justify abortion.
I wouldn’t be surprised if 0bama finds a way to avoid FOCA. Pat Buchanan said that within 6 months 0bama would be at war with half the country or the radical left. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks likes his pal Ayers and his ilk may be taking the short end of the stick.
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Obama's adherence to the culture of death will make President Bush look like a hero. Those who hate Bush will eventually see that there is a difference between a flawed human being and an evil one.
This is the issue that the Catholic Bishops said would put the Church against the government.
“A f’kn waste of money — but maybe the useless research can be used to justify abortion.”
It is useful to continue decentizing new generations to the horrors of abortion.
Obama will be most liberal on the social agenda i.e. abortion, abortion, abortion, and more abortion. The left wing lunatics and the limousine liberals will be all happy with him as long as he appeases them on the abortion issue. Even if Obama gives us conservatives all what we want on the economic and national security issues and does exactly the opposite of what he promised his left wing base on these two issues, the left wing and limousine liberals will still support him as long as he is liberal on the social issues and mainly abortion.
Didn’t see that one coming. < /sarc>
It all sounds like a laughable defense in a murder trial:
Your Honor, will you please instruct the prosecution to stop using that emotionally charged word "murder" to describe what my client did to his wife? We intend to prove that all he did was to freely donate her body to science. The prosecution may quibble that my client had no right to donate his wife's living body, and that this donation was done without her consent. Yet I think we can all agree that consent unreasonably denied can justifiably be compelled, and that it is unreasonable and contrary to the public good to retard scientific progress.
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