It’s funny how Bush’s “culture of life” means that we can’t do research to save people’s lives. Billions of fertilizes eggs do not reach fruition. These are not children dying, they are a single cell or a few cells. Yes, these cells have potential but that potential does not represent a person in any way, shape or form. We have an opportunity to use some of these small clumps of cells to potentially save millions of lives.
It’s also funny how the Republicans are trying to play both sides. The Senate made a deal with the White House. The Senate can pretend they have half of a brain and that they support important medical research. Then Bush pretends that this research kills children. Rove is on the case making sure that a minority of religious zealots can doom millions of people to early death and cripple American research. The great advances of medical research will now be discovered abroad.
A culture of life should, perhaps, focus on people. The misguided agenda of the so-called Pro Life movement is tangibly killing people. These idiots will overturn important aspects of our Constitution, criminalize cutting-edge medical research, prohibit prophylactics such as Plan B and continue to undermine the rights of women and the hopes of the sick.
Although I wish no harm on anyone, it would be fitting if Bush fell and became a quadriplegic. Then he could hold that pen in his mouth and sign a bill that would doom him to an eternity of immobility.
UPDATE: Check out this very good article on stem cells at DailyKos.
lolife 
Now you’ve made a good point. The only part I disagree with is that even though I’m not convinced one way or the other on this debate, I think that a man acting out of the courage of his convictions is commendable. I would have less respect for Mr. Bush had he caved on this, even though I may not agree.
In a democracy, the people vote for who they want and they expect to “get what they paid for” (literally and figuratively I guess). In this way, I would make the same argument for John Kerry had he won and not vetoed this bill. So, you’ve got to live with this decision until someone else who is more in line with your views is elected. Then we’ll have other right-wing bloggers just as smart of you decrying the opposite stance.
And so it goes…
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Thank you for keeping me on my toes!
First of all, I was describing the ideal agenda, from the Right Wing point of view, at the end there. They would gladly do as I describe. I hope we both hope they don’t.
To your point, yes, research can continue with private funding (for now). But realize that the government subsidizes a majority of research in this country. I do astronomy, for example, and I would guess that 90+% of the grant money comes from the NSF and NASA. I suspect something similar occurs in biology. It is a major, major thing when the government stops funding research in any area. it is certainly true of this area as well.
I know Bush and other conservatives think that a fertilized egg is a human being with rights under the constitution of the United States of America. I think that is both untrue legally and untrue scientifically. I think that Bush finds this conviction in his faith, which is fine for a personal view but utterly inappropriate for the chief executive. I don’t care if Bush is Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or Satanist, he should not use his position as President to force those religious views down our throat.
Clumps of cells do not have rights and they should not have rights. Suggesting that such research is murder (which Tony Snow did repeatedly) is ricidulous.
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If you think you have a strong argument, why do you omit or misrepresent facts? Nobody is criminalizing ANYTHING. Bush vetoed a bill that would provide for public funding of embryonic stem cell research. Private industries and institutions are free to whack as many embryonic stem cells as they want. So, not sure why your convinced that these medical advances will come from abroad. Sure, they won’t have that super efficient, non-earmarked government money (please note sarcasm) to work with but perhaps they may manage anyway.
So this doesn’t “mean that we can’t do research to save people’s lives.” You want to do some research in this area, go for it. Nobody is stopping you! The following quote is directly from a news story on CNN: “Officials said the administration will stress that the president is not opposed to stem cell research but remains concerned about how how taxpayer dollars are spent.”
The president made this decision based on a personal religious conviction. Now, despite the fact that he is an “idiot” and that he may actually be acting on a personal conviction, if something terrible happens to him perhaps the billions of dollars spent by the private sector on embryonic stem cell research may help him out.
There are people who believe that life begins at conception so once you believe that, all these choices that follow are informed by that belief. So, like it or not you have a president that believes that the life begins at conception and those “cell clumps” are fetuses.
I’m not sure where I stand on this issue myself but I do respect his beliefs and I certainly defend his right to hold them, just as I would defend your right to hold yours.
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