that what is right will always eventually triumph
and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.
Posted on 6/9/2004, 1:48:37 PM by shhrubbery!
Today: June 09, 2004 at 5:46:55 PDT
SEA ISLAND, Ga. (AP) -
Ronald Reagan's death from complications of Alzheimer's disease has not changed President Bush's stand against using embryos for stem-cell research, Laura Bush said Wednesday.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan and others believe the use of stem cells from embryos could lead to cures for such illnesses as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Bush's executive order in August 2001, however, limited federal research funding for stem cell research to 78 embryonic stem cell lines then in existence.
"We need to balance the interest in science with moral issues," Mrs. Bush said on NBC's "Today" show, adding that there's going to be an increasing number of people suffering from the disease as the baby boom population.
Stem cells can be taken from days-old human embryos and then grown in a laboratory into lines or colonies. Embryos are destroyed when the cells are extracted, a process opposed by some conservatives who link it to abortion.
In a letter to the president the day before Reagan died, 58 senators asked Bush to relax federal restrictions. The letter said only 19 of those lines are now available to researchers and those available are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, making their use for humans uncertain.
"We have to be really careful between what we want to do for science and what we should do ethically and the stem cell issue is certainly one of those issues that we need to treat very carefully," Mrs. Bush said on "The Early Show" on CBS.
On ABC's "Good Morning America," Mrs. Bush referred to alternatives to "abusing embryos" in research. "There are stem cell embryos ready that people can use for research, but it's a very delicate line," she said.
Mrs. Bush is with the president in Sea Island, Ga., for an economic summit of the eight largest industrial nations.
What does Laura have to do with this? Perhaps you forgot, but the days of an obnoxious activist first lady are over, at least for the next 4.5 years.
But I also haven't forgotten that Laura Bush, in a interview a couple of years ago, said she didn't think "Roe versus Wade should be overturned."
The press and the Democrats are stirring up this issue for propaganda purposes. Plus the usual suspects: Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter. (Did Bush and Rove think Arlen would be grateful for his crucial support? If so, they were exceptionally stupid. Arlen will ALWAYS be on the wrong side of key issues.)
I'd call this a wedge issue. The media are trying to make people think that Bush and Reagan are on opposite sides here, which is not true. They don't want Bush to draw on Reagan's popularity. They are also hoping to portray Bush as cruel and heartless, willing to let people die. But if they could make him change his mind, they know it would badly damage his political base. Divide et impera.
AP bias and/or ignorance alert. This should read:
The letter said only 19 of those lines are now available to taxpayer-funded researchers..."
Non-taxpayer funded "research" using live tissue, not only from embryos, but from late term aborted babies, continues unabated.
Partial birth abortion is a technique especially favored by these ghouls to preserve that tissue.
"Ronald Reagan's death from complications of Alzheimer's disease has not changed President Bush's stand against using embryos for stem-cell research, Laura Bush said Wednesday."
Good. It is wrong.
Unfortunately Nancy Reagan allowed her emotions to overlook right and wrong. I doubt very much that Ronald Reagan would want embryonic stem cell research to be legalized. He was against abortion and using an egg in this way is wrong and all for selfish reasons.
I wish a right leaning 527 would run an ad with this quote.
This is so misleading! There are many of us "others" who "believe that stem cells from embryos could lead to cures for such illnesses as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's". But we also think those cures can not, must not come from the intentional destruction of live embryos. We fear the inevitable buying and selling, the intentional harvesting of human embryos that would surely follow.
Of course it's admirable to want to cure disease. But we must weigh the cost. And we must consider "what next"? If human embryos are just human tissue to be used in research, how long before that research turns into the search for the "fountain of youth"? How long before women in third world countries are paid a pittance to donate eggs for medical research?
I don't understand why people don't decide this question on it's most personal level. Look at your child or grandchild. Remember how you loved them even before they were born? You cherished them, from the very moment you knew they existed in their Mother's womb. Ask yourself: Would you have sacrificed one of them for scientific research, no matter how noble the cause?
I believe using embryos for stem cell research is wrong on two counts. The first is that it is immoral. The second is there are better ways to continue stem cell research. Adult stem cells are far better for this time of research and I think in the long run better.
This is momentous. It has been said in the past that all the Bush men were pro-life, and all the Bush women were pro-abortion. Either Laura is taking the role of spokesperson for the President, or she has PERSONALLY come around on the issue of life. In either case, it's a big change, because Nancy Reagan (pro-abortion) simply refused to talk about abortion, and Barbara Bush did the same, and until now Laura has said nothing about the value of the lives of the pre-born.
That is awesome. I have found a new motto! Bookmarking
It's my understanding embryonic stem cell research is legal. It's just that President Bush said the U.S. taxpayers shouldn't be paying for it. Privately-funded researchers can do what they want with it. The press is distorting the issue.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Private investors want the government to fo the heavy lifting, since they know that almost none of this research is going to bear fruit. As for the researchers, they seen embryos as a cheap and plentiful source that is "going to waste."
Get up on the news man or you'll continue to be two steps behind the rest of us. And stop defaming Laura Bush.
Laura Bush Says Cannot Support Stem Cell Research
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=AR5G1BHAOCSCUCRBAE0CFFA?type=politicsNews&storyID=5383174
And it's a fact that Laura Bush stated, to Katie Couric on the "Today Show" on January 18, 2001, that she did NOT favor the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Here's the exact quote from the transcript:
LAURA BUSH, WIFE OF GEORGE W. BUSH: I think that we should do what we can to limit the number of abortions; to try to reduce the number of abortions in a lot of ways, and that is talking about responsibility with girls and boys; by teaching abstinence, having abstinence classes everywhere in schools and in churches and in Sunday schools. I think there are a lot of ways we can reduce number of abortions and I agree with my husband on that issue.KATIE COURIC, NBC'S "TODAY": Should Roe v. Wade, for example, be overturned?
BUSH: No, I don't think it should be overturned.
The media had a field day with that.
If Laura Bush has had a change of heart, then I welcome that.
Nice dodge. You implied with the title of this thread that she supports fetal cell research. She doesn't and she's said she doesn't. How you make the leap to Roe v Wade is beyond me. Even if Roe was overturned, abortions would not be outlawed in most states. Get with the program before you start slamming a fine First Lady.
It's not legal yet. Some were being used and ONLY those are allowed right now. It was a bad compromise.
I like Laura Bush and am not 'slamming' her. But she made a big mistake in 2001 when she allowed Katie Couric to get her to say the thought Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. This undermined her husband, the elected president -- who I believe owes his election to voters who believe Roe v. Wade MUST be overturned.
Like Nancy Reagan, Laura is an admirable first lady; but both Laura and Nancy don't seem to share some of their husbands' most deeply held beliefs. Laura hurt GWB and the pro-life cause with her statement to Katie Couric.
What does Roe v. Wade have to do with embryonic stem cell research? Everything.
Roe v. Wade legimitized the murder of unborn children. Roe is the most salient legal starting point of the slippery slope we have slid down, to hit the moral and cultural nadir where 'respectable' people profess to think it's a good idea to dissect the young to prolong the lives of the old.
It is undeniable that supporting Roe v. Wade, as Laura Bush did in 2001, is an anti-life position. Again, if she has reconsidered, I welcome that.
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