Posted on 07/23/2006 12:01:06 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Actor Michael J Fox has slammed George W Bush's decision to veto US government funding of pioneering studies into stem cell research.
On Wednesday, the US president used his power of veto for the first time since he came to power in January 2001.
Back to the Future star Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, is outraged Bush went against American public opinion that scientists should be allowed to try and find the cure for many diseases using the cells from nearly 400,000 embryos currently in storage.
He said: "I regret the loss of five years when real progress could have been made, and I find it frustrating that the president would use his first veto of his time in office to thwart this research. It just seems a shame to me.
"I am respectful of those who oppose this research and their reasoning for it, but they do represent a minority.
"I think that to make a choice to protect millions of cells that are going to be destroyed over protecting millions of living and soon-to-be living human beings and citizens of this country… it's hard to get around that.
"I figure you have to trust the American people, our scientists, our institutions, our facilities, to really do the right thing and lead the way with this.
"It's going to happen anyway, so why doesn't it happen with American oversight and federal funding, and with an enthusiastic and well-thought-out approach?
"Since when does America wait for somebody else to figure it out? I mean, we should figure it out.
"We have been blessed with the resources and the intelligence and the spirit and the energy to tackle these kinds of problems. We are all set to do it and we need leadership from the top to spur us on to do it."
some people just do not want to know the truth.
Why didnt Clinton fund it?
I read his statement. I do not see blasting in his tone. Headline editor is projecting opinion.
Michael knows people with money. Let them fund it.
These people hellbent on redefining abortion are wasting their time on a man who is actively pro-life.
I, for one, find myself rather curious where that Canadian receives treatment for his Parkinson's.
Research like this that plays with matters of life and death for all involved should be left up to the private sector. I have no problem with scientific research. I have a problem with my tax dollars funding the culture of death.
"It's going to happen anyway, so why not.....?"
FOX, you moron, the government already subsidizes stem cell research on a few lines of embryonic stem cells. It already is occurring. And GWB was the president that authorized it, to make matters worse.
FOX, moron, why aren't you doing the American thing and pushing private businesses to do their own research? YOU KNOW WHY????? BECAUSE all of the friggin' companies won't until they can tap into the GOVERNMENT gravy train and use THE GOVERNMENT'S money to get their patents and products made.
Everybody wants to be Trump. We could be so much better as a nation if we didn't waste so much money. I'm for capitalism but for these companies to sit on their asses waiting at the government trough to get funding at the same time getting exclusive rights and patents is just unacceptably socialist at best.
Gee. I didn't know that's why Bayer invented aspirin. And Pfizer invented Viagra.
Hey Michael, go back to Canada and get on the list to see a specialist for Parkinsons disease.
Gee. I didn't know that's why Bayer invented aspirin. And Pfizer invented Viagra. I forgot Bell labs invented the transistor, and Pasteur invented penicillin.
Actor Michael J Fox has slammed George W Bush's decision to veto US government funding of pioneering studies into stem cell research.
Embryonic - EMBRYONIC stem cell research. The President does NOT oppose stem cell research in the least, which can be done without destroying embryos.
The press continues to lie.
"I think that to make a choice to protect millions of cells that are going to be destroyed over protecting millions of living and soon-to-be living human beings and citizens of this country… it's hard to get around that."Well scientifically speaking, those "cells" are already living human beings, so destroying them is the real shame.
They can all get together with their rich 'friends' and fund whatever they please. They just don't have the right to use taxpayer's money for their pet projects which some people think is murder.
I wouldn't want Parkinson's. I badly want a cure for all our horrible illnesses. But I'd rather suffer than be cured with cells from dead babies.
"I am respectful of those who oppose this research and their reasoning for it, but they do represent a minority."
I would like to know where he gets his stats. All the polls I've seen on the issue asks if you are for or against stem cell research. Of course, most of us are for this, just not embryonic stem cell research. You are correct to state the press continues to lie. Adult and embryonic stem cell research are 2 completely different things but the press won't differentiate this.
This is a scam to bilk taxpayer's cash.
Adult stem cell research is making inroads solving the telemere problem and also gets around rejection problems. Most everything being done is ignored and unpublicized so that the embryonic stem cell faction can gain momentum.
That being said, I'm glad Bush vetoed the bill. It's just that old man death doesn't seem that big when he's years in the future. When he's standing a foot from you, he's one big SOB. I look at Fox like I look at the parents who go on crusades against the video game industry because one of their kids committed suicide after getting wrapped up in one of the games. I think they're wrong, but I'm not going to slam them too hard (course, I'm not going to let them ban video games either, if I can help it.)
He probably got his figures from the PEW poll which was more than likely paid for by MSM or University.
This is from the National Right to Life poll...
When asked about legislation before Congress that would allow federal funding for stem-cell research that destroys human embryos, respondents were closely divided, with 46.9 percent saying they opposed such funding and 43.3 percent expressing approval.
But when respondents were presented with an alternative between funding research that destroys human embryos and that which uses adult stem cells requiring no destruction of embryos, only 23 percent supported embryonic research and 61.4 percent approved using adult stem cells.
What Micheal J. Fox is pushing for is just fetal abortion under a new name. That's the real scam.
Oh, come on, Mikey. Pres. Bush never said scientists couldn't "try and find the cure" (assuming it exists); and he's the only President who's allowed any funding at all for it. Dope.
Another noisy voice from the media.
You want results, Mike, let the private sector do the research.
Perhaps Mr Fox should voice some gratitude toward medicine and the free market which has brought forth so many new treatments.
Good article by Michael Reagan:
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Support is More Politics Than Science
by Michael Reagan
July 11, 2006
It keeps popping up like weeds in your garden. Just when you think you've weeded out all their myths and falsehoods, the advocates of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) are back pounding on your door and demanding your tax dollars to fund this latest example of junk science masquerading as the real thing.
The Senate is once again taking up the matter at the behest of Majority Leader Bill Frist, a doctor who ought to know better and who is going all out to revive the issue and push for federal money to fund embryonic stem cell research, now all but banned from getting taxpayer dollars by presidential fiat. As always, the proponents of ESCR have one big thing going for them: vast public misunderstanding of what it's all about.
Thanks to the liberal media, opportunistic politicians and a highly vocal segment of the dollar-hungry research community, opponents of ESCR are universally pictured as being against stem cell research. They are never identified as being wholeheartedly in favor of non-embryonic stem cell research, the most promising kind, but instead as being against all stem cell research, period.
This is an important distinction which has not been made, so the majority of the American people have been convinced that opponents of ESCR are a bunch of yahoos who don't understand or appreciate science and those who practice it, or the medical miracles ESCR research promises.
Poppycock! It needs to be said right up front: at this time those promised ESCR miracles are merely the products of the proponents’ hopes and dreams, and mostly based on the now admittedly falsified claims of a South Korean scientist -- not of the current reality, which is grim. Far from curing everything from Alzheimer’s Disease to spinal cord injuries, and a whole host of other medical problems as proponents promise, all ESCR has produced thus far is cancerous tumors in lab animals. And even top ESCR scientists now admit that any progress in the field is 25 years away, after they stop killing lab animals, that is.
Yet you hear proponents say that cures for Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injuries are right around the corner and if only science had been allowed to go ahead with ESCR a long time ago my dad could have been cured of Alzheimer’s and Christopher Reeve would have lived to walk again.
The ESCR community based most of their inflated claims on the work of South Korean scientist Huang Woo-suk, who claimed to have created the world's first cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them, raising hopes of cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Dr. Huang was widely acclaimed as a world-class stem cell pioneer and treated as a hero until investigations disclosed that he had fabricated key data in two papers published in the U.S. journal, Science. He has now admitted the fraud and has been indicted along with five of his associates.
It's important to remember that there is no ban on embryonic stem cells research. Anybody who wants to do it is free to do so, he just can't do it on the public's dollar. If it held the promise that proponents claim, top pharmaceutical companies would be vying for chances to throw their research dollars at it. After all, if it worked as promised they could expect to make huge profits. That they don't see such prospects should tell us something.
As a result, those seeking to continue to spend their time working on ESCR have to go looking for other sources of funding, and all that's left for them is the federal treasury. And that's what it's all about.
As if Bush is going to change his mind. Why, so they can bash him and scream that "it's not enough" if he does? F Hollywood idiots.
Government getting involved in anything that the private sector could easily do on its own, is a recipe for disaster.
I found Fox' tone to be respectful and his argument well-put.
He's in a position with Parkinsons I pray God I'll never be in, nor anybody else on this thread. And I think that the tone and sentiments expressed by some, here, are regrettable.
It's one thing to disagree with someone, its another thing entirely to attack them personally with invectives like "moron". Fox may be many things (like "Canadian", but it may be safe to assume he's taken care of that oversight at some point in his career) but "moron" he isn't. And he's been good for plenty of laughs and entertainment along the way.
C'mon folks: let's not be ungenerous. Attack the argument, not the man.
Why do most of you get angry at him?
He's dying for heaven's sake. What did you expect him to say?
God makes hypocrites out of us all, at some point.
UH...Michael...you can do the research...you just can't use public funds...go back to Canada!
agreed. thanks for posting.
Hello, McFly?
To Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and the great celebrities like the late Chistopher Reeves - Michael J. Fox - Mary Tyler Moore - or any pro-stem cell politicians if they really support the use of human embryonic stem cell they should please follow these instructions:
#1) Go to a clinic with your 'better half' and create a fertilized child embryo.
#2) Use that particular embryo for your own research and your own cure or to help others.
OPTION: If you are past the production point ask one of your children or grandchildren to provide(or be) the raw materials for your miracle cure.
Maxim#237: Those who support and yell the loudest for embryonic stem cell research funding will NOT be the people who will provide their embryonic offspring to the research laboratory.
You are correct, he has been one of the hollywierds that has been semi-OK
The writer of this piece gets this utterly wrong, of course.
Nothing has been banned. Scientists are allowed to fold, spindle and mutililate these embryos however they see fit, short of outright human cloning. They are just not going to receive Federal dollars to do so.
Have we reached such a state of dependence that failure of the government to fund something amounts to a ban? That's just pathetic.
If stem cells were as promising as these people claim, this research would be funded by private entities at a level a thousand times what the government could afford.
This is a fight over abortion, plain and simple. The Pro-Abortion crowd was tired of having their butts kicked over Partial Birth Abortion, and have decided to move the debate to the opposite end of the gestational spectrum. Folks like Michael J. Fox, whether they know it or not, labor in the service of the blood-dripping abortionist.
You miss the point, 007.
The reason the fight is over federal funding is because the Pro-Abortion crowd wants to win victories over the President. This is a proxy fight over abortion. That is all it is. The funding is irrelevant and the research is irrelevant. The Pro-Abortion crowd is trying to establish, in principle, that the destruction of human life can be justified on a utilitarian basis. This line of reasoning is evil, pure and simple, and must be combatted.
By permitting the research without funding, President Bush has moved the debate to the arena of rights and removed it from arena of utilitarian decisions on the value of human live vs. the value of research. This isn't good enough for the Pro-Abortion crowd. They want the government to adopt a policy that endorses the position that some innocent human life should be sacrificed for the greater good. They will be satisfied with nothing less.
Fox is a US citizen and has been since 2000.
Fox should be greatfull at the advances in Parkinsons treatment that have happened in the last 30 years. The best I remember my great grandfather being able to do was barely hobble around the house.
One wonders if he feels the same when discussing Global Warming.
Michael J. Fox is an actor. I am sorry for his disease as it is the same one that took my grandfather. However, I would not sacrifice an innocent life to save my grandfather and I would not sacrifice an innocent life to save Mr. Fox.
I believe my grandfather would never have asked me to.
Someone should take a newborn infant to Mr. Fox when the cameras are rolling and say, "Mr. Fox, it's OK with me if we kill my baby so you can have his/her cells," and see how he responds.
Shalom.
Bush is not thwarting research. The US spends more on stem cell research than any other country. Most of it is done with private funds.
What an incredibly misleading headline. There was virtually no blasting of Bush in what he said at all.
Well, boy, there is experimentation going on in the private sector funded by billions and billions of bucks. That the government bans it doesn't mean it isn't ongoing. It merely means that the taxpayer doesn't fund it.
There is no way, no how, no possibility that I will use a life saving measure from embryonic tissue or cells.
I'm in the same position where "possibility" may extend life.
Perhaps those millions of infants aborted or created and destroyed already could have been the ones who gave us cures, peace, art, music, architecture, life, but we will never know.
I don't know who's feeding him his info, but embryonic stem cells don't work. It's the ones that President Bush is allowing -- adult stem cells -- that are turning out to be fantastic.
Michael needs to do a little more research on his own.
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