Some People Are So Freakin' Stupid
Chicago Tribune Op Ed Columnist Steve Chapman: "On Tuesday, President Bush went before cameras holding in his arms a month-old baby named Trey Jones. The picture raised a question that supporters of embryonic stem-cell research would rather not answer: Would the world be better off if Trey had been killed as an embryo to advance medical research?
That is what would happen to thousands of embryos under the bill passed this week by the House of Representatives, at least if the supporters' hopes are realized. And it would happen with the approval and help of the federal government. The measure would scrap the policy adopted by Bush in August 2001, when he agreed to government financing of such research only if it relied on stem-cell lines that had already been created."
No moron, the question is whether the world would have been better off had fertilized eggs like Trey been flushed down the toilet as embryos or if they had been used to enhance medical research.
Chapman goes on:
Never mind that frozen embryos not needed by their parents don't have to be destroyed. They can be implanted in the wombs of willing mothers, as Trey Jones was.
Yes, but the Bush ban on embryonic research does not also ban the destruction of embryos. It does not mandate that all embryos be implanted in the wombs of willing mothers. This bill will not change the number of embryos destroyed each year one iota. What it will change is whether that destruction is used for good or for nothing.
Chapman himself actually gets the facts straight when he writes: The House bill would allow federally funded research on embryos created in fertilization clinics that would otherwise be discarded and that are donated by the parents. But never let the facts get in the way of a good argument.
As someone who has gone through IVF, as someone with a relative who has Parkinsons, with relatives who had Alzheimers, as a decent human being who wants the best for those who are alive, the willingness of opponents on this issue to twist the truth, to oppose something that makes good from the situation, to fail to admit that they haven't done anything at all about embryo destruction is worse than offensive, it is immoral.
That is what would happen to thousands of embryos under the bill passed this week by the House of Representatives, at least if the supporters' hopes are realized. And it would happen with the approval and help of the federal government. The measure would scrap the policy adopted by Bush in August 2001, when he agreed to government financing of such research only if it relied on stem-cell lines that had already been created."
No moron, the question is whether the world would have been better off had fertilized eggs like Trey been flushed down the toilet as embryos or if they had been used to enhance medical research.
Chapman goes on:
Never mind that frozen embryos not needed by their parents don't have to be destroyed. They can be implanted in the wombs of willing mothers, as Trey Jones was.
Yes, but the Bush ban on embryonic research does not also ban the destruction of embryos. It does not mandate that all embryos be implanted in the wombs of willing mothers. This bill will not change the number of embryos destroyed each year one iota. What it will change is whether that destruction is used for good or for nothing.
Chapman himself actually gets the facts straight when he writes: The House bill would allow federally funded research on embryos created in fertilization clinics that would otherwise be discarded and that are donated by the parents. But never let the facts get in the way of a good argument.
As someone who has gone through IVF, as someone with a relative who has Parkinsons, with relatives who had Alzheimers, as a decent human being who wants the best for those who are alive, the willingness of opponents on this issue to twist the truth, to oppose something that makes good from the situation, to fail to admit that they haven't done anything at all about embryo destruction is worse than offensive, it is immoral.
posted by EPE | Link:5/26/2005 12:31:00 PM
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