The “onrushing train of biotechnology”
It’s underway. First week of business in the 110th Congress and the Democratic leadership is making embryonic stem cells one of the first items of business, as mentioned in the post below. Knowing it’s coming, President Bush is essentially saying ‘bring it.’ He’s not flinching.
Supporters and opponents of human embryonic stem cell research promoted their positions on Wednesday ahead of a congressional vote on the issue, but the White House made clear it disapproves of any changes in legislation.
Proponents of expanded federal funding for work on human embryonic stem cells have reintroduced a bill to do so in the House of Representatives and plan a vote on Thursday. Last July, President George W. Bush exercised his first and only veto to stop the measure after it passed the House and Senate.
Senators say they have at least 67 votes, enough to override a veto this time, but House supporters were not sure of the vote there.
The White House issued a report suggesting that another veto was inevitable.
“The stem cell debate is only the first in what will be an onrushing train of biotechnology challenges in our future. We must establish a constructive precedent here for taking the moral dimensions of these issues seriously,” read the report, entitled Advancing Stem Cell Science without Destroying Human Life.
This should be a required reading for any debate, but one side of it doesn’t want any discussion or reasoning or explanations. They’ve made up their minds, and don’t want to be confused with the facts.
“Without an understanding that life begins at conception, and that an embryo is a nascent human being, there will always be arguments that other uses, takeovers, and make-overs of embryos are justified by potential scientific and medical benefits,” the White House report reads.
But newly elected Rep. Phil Hare, an Illinois Democrat, said supporters of the bill hold the higher moral ground.
Only someone who doesn’t want to know all the facts and understand the ramifications could say that.
 Hare said he replaced Democrat Lane Evans, who held the seat for 23 years. “Unfortunately, his career of distinction was cut short when his Parkinson’s forced him to retire from the House,” Hare told a news conference.
“I am here today because I owe it to Lane and the millions of other Americans suffering from Parkinson’s, prostate cancer, leukemia, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injuries to deliver the hope that lies in embryonic stem cell research.”
For the record, Mr. Hare, exactly what are you pinning that hope to, given the absolute failure of embryonic stem cells in every study done to date? Or haven’t you read that report, either?