Posted on 01/14/2010 7:49:17 AM PST by Hayrider
From California comes an interesting bit of news on the Bush-era controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research.
Remember stem cells? That was a red-hot issue in the previous decade, as it had all the hallmarks of the classic left-wing meme; the Luddite Christians standing in the way of a glorious scientific revolution due to their quaint and obsolete notions on abortion and their overheated morality.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehayride.com ...
Farah Fawcett and Dominick Dunne went to Germany for embryonic stem cell treatment of their cancer.
Both are dead.
The exploitation of those who are desperately seeking medical treatment is immoral.
Wonder what Michael J Fox has to say about it now.
The reason why Bush and republicans couldn't sell this argument is they were spending so much money and growing government so much that a fiscal defense for what was basically a conservative moral argument looked lame. .
That’s an excellent point.
It should be said, though, that the fact research dollars from Bush administration grants using adult stem cells has contributed to some 73 treatments will never be brought forth. He’ll get zero credit for having advanced science in this regard; all anybody will say is that he stood in the way.
I have no special brief for Bush, but I’m not sure there has ever been a president who’s had so many lies told about him. Funny thing about lies, though - they get found out eventually. Just ask Obama.
If the right had the sense to frame the debate in these terms rather than allowing themselves to get bogged down in morality it would have won the debate handily years ago. Ultimately the science is correcting this misstep but even as science is quietly acknowledging that autologous (self-donation) is the only way to go, the press on all sides still refuses to reframe the issue.
In 2010 how many people understand that the only "adult" cells that can help them in stem cell therapy are their own cells?
By the time Bush did the veto he was politically toxic. He had lost all credibility.
Yes democrats were on rapid-fire. Shoot at anything that moves.(I watched MSNBC during that painful period.) But the key was that the public already had lost faith in him : Iraq, Katrina, Marriot Myers, Gas prices, deficits, ... all fit together in a nice narrative that voters believed(except FR and talk radio maybe) : ‘Bush was a screw up with no credibility’.. So then he tries to pitch a case against research?? (as his first veto?) Not going to fly at that point.
That'll get you every time.
The dead end is that embryonic stem cells are unreliable and are prone to grow cancers and no one could figure out how to mediate that kind of result.
It might be happening in places other than the US...places more friendly to the almighty dollar, rather than the almighty... but it would be happening.
So....is it happening? How many miracle cures have come out over the past 10 years or so?
I know of someone who went away for stem cell treatment for MS. Did no good.
That would have been a great way to frame it. The embryonic stem cell research issue reminds me of ethanol.. The clueless public at the prompting of media types demands the federal government (looks like it) finds a solution so the government wastes even more money on counterproductive processes
The moral argument against using these stem cells was a politiocal loser(the Terri Schivo actions by republicans was a political disaster too.) And it fed into the democrat's narrative that Bush was an uneducated idiot that took orders from the religious right (and Dick Cheney too.)
From the public's view Bush didn't have the moral authority to deny ANY spending because of his own spending history.
Stem cell research is in its infancy, but there is definite progress being made. Some people with sickle-cell anemia, leukemia, "bubble boy" disease & other problems have unquestionably been helped.
The main problem is typically impatient people who don't realize the decades of research, testing, re-testing, new research as a result of those tests, etc, etc that are needed to make even modest gains.
John Adams. Jefferson's party attacked him relentlessly and he came to be regarded by history as the worthless President who created the hated Alien and Sedition acts. In recent years he's been given a more balanced treatment and comes out remarkably well, the lightning bolt that struck and sparked the revolution!
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