Bush Vetoes Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill
By now, you have no doubt heard that President Bush has issued the first veto of his presidency. He decided that first bill important enough to veto was the McCain-Feingold anti-free speech bill the massive, $400 billion drug entitlement program the Patriot Act a bill designed to fund medical research.
So, instead of being used for research that could cure conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, nerve damage, MS, and Parkinson’s Disase, thousands of frozen embryos will instead be flushed down the toilet, destroyed to no one’s benefit. Good going there, Prez. Thanks.
Now, in fairness, all he did was prevent Congress from spending money on the issue. There’s no ban on private embryonic stem cell research.
But still, Bush waited six years to issue a veto, overlooking both major violations of our civil liberties and massive government waste of our tax dollars, and he when he finally does get around the exercising his veto power, he uses it to prevent funding of potentially life-saving research.
That about sums up our President. Better luck next time!
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July 20th, 2006 at 9:04 am
I’m shocked to see this here.
I was never more proud of Bush than this moment: “He explained his decision at a White House ceremony surrounded by 18 families who “adopted” frozen embryos that were not used by other couples, and then used those leftover embryos to have children
‘Each of these children was still adopted while still an embryo and has been blessed with a chance to grow, to grow up in a loving family. These boys and girls are not spare parts,’ he said.” (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/19/politics/main1818040.shtml)
You can’t believe that life begins at conception and be for embryonic stem cell use. It doesn’t matter that the embryos are ‘leftover” and “would be thrown away anyway.” That’s not right, but it doesn’t make it all right to harvest them.
And I say that as one with an illness which could benefit from stem cell usage. That doesn’t make me very popular with others with the same illness.
Besides, there has been very promising research on adult stem cell usage. Why not pursue that and leave out the controversy?
BTW, he did not wait six years to issue a veto — he vetoed a bill that the Senate voted on just this week.
July 20th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Not true; that’s exactly the position I am taking. These embyros are dead already. Assuming that the parents do not use them, they will never be brought to term. They are essentially stillborn.
It’s the moral equivalent of performing scientific research on a dead body, in my opinion. Do you see where I’m coming from?
What I meant was that this is his first veto ever. He didn’t veto any of the bad laws that were passed during the first five years of his administration.
July 20th, 2006 at 10:11 am
They are not dead. They are on death row, perhaps, but they are not dead. They are very much alive. That’s what makes it wrong to kill them. It would be like saying a bunch a death row prisoners are going to die anyway, so let’s use their bodies now for scientific research while they are still profitable.
One of the solutions to the “leftover” embryo problem is not to make so many of them in the first place. A couple shouldn’t have any more made than what they are planning to use. As I understand it, it is a time-consuming and expensive process with a high failure rate, so they make a bunch at once in hopes that one or two will “take.”
But that doesn’t help the “extras” that are already made and stored. Yet it is still wrong to take those lives and use them for scientific purposes — or to throw them away, IMO.
There are agencies who “adopt” these embryos. That’s where the children who were with Bush yesterday came from.