Posted by
Playful Walrus on Thursday, July 20, 2006 12:01:54 PM
Haven't blogged in days, and I apologize to my reader. Sorry about that.
So now Bush is being characterized as anti-science because of his veto of the Let's Spend Taxpayer Money to Kill Human Beings When They Are Embryos Bill.
I think there are too many Americans who don't realize that 1) private, voluntary funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research is still legal, as is taxpayer funding of existing ESC lines, and 2) stem cells can be obtained without killing human beings.
Some of the people who DO understand the facts retort with "Hey, these embryos are going to be destroyed anyway. Why not use them for valuable research?"
If it is so promising, though, then private funding should be no problem.
But getting back to the human beings we're talking about here... I consider "extra" embryos to be a problem with certain forms of "reproductive" technology. If such technology routinely results in human beings being deliberately killed, maybe we shouldn't be using that technology to begin with.
Death row inmates are going to be executed anyway, but somehow I think many of some of the most vocal critics of Bush on this matter would vehemently oppose fatal experiments on these inmates.
Also, even if the laws were written so that this funding would cover only work on human beings who were going to be dstroyed, someone's going to make a stink because we could do MORE research if we'd allow human beings to be created just for experiments. Where is the line drawn? Also, to justify this by saying "They are early on in their development anyway." Where does that line get drawn? Is it okay to spend taxpayer money to take a 5-month-along fetus' brain for experiments?
One of the practical problems here is that when a Federal program is created, it almost will never go away. It will be expanded with the boundaries being pushed and the funding being increased. Once we make it profitable to do something, especially if that profit comes in the form of "free" taxpayer money, we instantly create a lobby that will do everything it can to keep that money flowing and to relax any restrictions.
I realize that there are people hoping for miracle cures for horrible diseases and injuries, but do the potential, unknown ends justify all means?