Posted on 10/09/2004 7:04:23 AM PDT by Stoat
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The Big Lie
An inhumane platform. Every reporter covering the election should, after the second presidential debate in St. Louis, be demanding of Kerry an answer to the following question: Who are the scientists who told you that "we have the option" of curing Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal-cord injuries, or any other disease using embryonic stem cells? If they won't ask him, the Bush campaign should defy him to name the names. He won't be able to do it. No scientists — even those most pro-Kerry and aggressively in favor of the federal funding of embryo-destructive research — ever told Kerry any such thing.
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For months now, the Kerry campaign and its surrogates, such as Ron Reagan Jr., have cruelly led suffering people to believe that cures for their diseases are just around the corner. All we have to do is replace Bush with Kerry, open the federal funding spigot, and presto! The blind see and the lame walk! The Kerry campaign's hyping of embryo-destructive research for political gain is the cruelest and most shameful episode in the story of the 2004 election.
What Elizabeth Long (the woman who asked Kerry the stem-cell question) said is true: "Thousands of people have already been cured or treated by the use of adult stem cells or umbilical-cord stem cells. However, no one has been cured by using embryonic stem cells. Wouldn't it be wise to use stem cells obtained without the destruction of an embryo?
Kerry answered with a lie. A lie that will falsely inflate the hopes of countless people who would dearly love to believe that "we have the option" of curing them.
— Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University.
You are correct.
I am up in the air on this issue. It's a tough issue for me. I am both troubled by it, and not troubled by it, when I view it from the aspect of in vitro fertilization (which I used to be troubled by). It's just confusing to me. But one thing that strikes me is that...even if it should result in a cure for diseases, that doesn't make it right, if it's a wrong thing to do....right? It's either right or it's wrong, and that doesn't depend on the results. But that's what concerns me about in vitro fertilization, too. And it concerns me that Bush does allow federal funds for embryonic stem cell research now, just not in the future. It's either wrong or it's right, is how I view it. I just haven't decided which side I come down on, yet. I am, though, troubled by all the business involving embryos, even the fertilization clinics (I read that they create lots of fertilized eggs, then throw most of them away. That disturbs me.)
"It IS the ADULT stem cell research that shows promise - NOT embryonic stem cell research."
This should not be suprising. IF there were a GOD (you can guess by my handle how I feel about that), which research would He approve of?
Unfortunately, that logic won't sway many (any?) Kerry voters, but might make some undecided Catholic and evangelical voters think.
Embryonic stem cell research only has promise as providing cover for the pro-Abortion crowd, in that it would have the tendency to legitimize their position in their own eyes and assuage their guilt somewhat
Abortion is murder, and research that comes even close to legitimizing abortion should be actively discouraged.
But Kerry BELIEVES in science. That's the point. That includes the kYOTO TREATY AND PROBABLY LITTLE GREEN MEN, TOO.
Make that two of us.
My problem is it's one of the few issues that I can't get a good handle on in terms of what's actually true and factual.
As Bush pointed out, he has allowed federal funds for research on already existing embryonic stem cell lines; he has not allowed funds to destroy any more embryos for research.
I have always been troubled by in vitro fertilization for the same reasons you are. The "human being as commodity" mindset has never, to my knowledge, achieved anything good.
Wesley Clark needs to stress how his dream of time travel can be realized to Kerry. As soon as Kerry unveils his time travel "plan" the election is his! *snort*!! :-)
Who are the scientists who told you that "we have the option" of curing Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal-cord injuries, or any other disease using embryonic stem cells?
Right now, in Beijing, there is a Chinese doctor doing this very thing. While not "curing" to the point of total restoration, para & quadraplegics are gaining feeling and motion, ALS patients are seeing their degenerative conditions arrest and begin to improve. It is particularly the ALS patients that interest me because of a friend who I spend 8 hours a day with the disease.
The process is called OEC, uses fetal nasal cells implanted into the spinal cords of the patients. Adult nasal cells do not have the same effect. Right now there is a 9 month waiting list to go over there for the procedure. My friend probably doesn't have 9 months, but it is the ONLY hope he has right now.
It is rumoured that Michael J. Fox went to China for this and his Parkinson's has improved.
I have read about this Chinese scientist who admits he hasn't written any papers or done any studies about this - he says he hasn't the time. He is a Chinese entrepreneur, for what that is worth.
If embryonic or fetal cells will produce cures, we should find a morally legitimate source for them. You can morally accept organ transplants from a murder victim, but it would be hideous to contract and arrange with his murderer to receive those organs.
Seeing a legitimate research study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal would be a good place to start regarding this. Until something like that appears, my position will remain unchanged.
he hasn't written any papers or done any studies about this - he says he hasn't the time...
If this is the same doctor, the reason is that he is training other surgeons to do this because of the huge demand from American patients. He really does not have the time. Studies? While I cannot say for certain if they have been done, there IS proof in the pudding.
Ethically, this whole thing unnerves me to no end. And sadly, fetal cells are widely available in China. It is an "is." But when I watch my friend gasp for air because he does not have enough diaphramatic strength to cough up mucous, or hear his voice getting weaker and weaker each day, or clean up after him quietly when he doesn't quite hit the commode and urinates on himself (because he is trying to do it himself!), well, if this is the ONLY hope he has (and it is, ALS research is not at the top of the list as far as that goes) than despite my misgivings about the procedure, I'd take him to China myself.
=== Who are the scientists who told you that "we have the option" of curing Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal-cord injuries, or any other disease using embryonic stem cells?
I suspect the first place to look would be those cashing in on our Pro-Life President's ESCR gravy train.
=== Kerry answered with a lie. A lie that
Our Pro-Life President has already etched in stone with Federal Funding (and a little prime-time Scripturizing for good measure as his ESCR decision became the First Order of Bidness at his first televised address to the nation.)
You have to admit this "fixation" with stem cells folks now seek to use against Kerry is one of the greatest hypocrisies ever perpetrated by the "pro-life" party when they've already reserved for themselves the initial deciding of who does and does not get to cash in on the federal funding of this wholly illegitimate, immoral and absolutely unnecessary program.
There is a difference here. What bush allows can be compared to research on dead bodies. These embryos are already "killed" in that they can never be considered life...only their cells are alive and used. The ban Bush has in place restricts making more embryos then killing them for experimentation.
NOTE: one important fact is that the "ban" that the liberals [even Michael J. Fox] neglect to point out is that this is just like the abortion issue. The Federal Government has not made this research illegal. The "ban" is only on Federal funding of taxpayer dollars for it. President Bush supports Federal funds for adult "stem cell" research and on the embryonic stem cells already killed.
So, any private research company or pharmaceutical company can privately fund millions for whatever stem cell research they choose. However, they prefer adult stem cells because they have brought results. Embryonic stem cells are a failure so far.
I could benefit from thhis research, but I would not if it meant killing an embryo...or God-given life.
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matt 16: 25-27
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