Hello Dolly
At issue was federally funded stem cell research which at the time was itself just theory with little to show in the way of results. The ban wasn’t on the research itself per se just on the funding part of the equation.
President Bush was having none of the “destroy life to save life” agenda and he eloquently stated his case. Later in 2006 his emphatically used his veto pen when it came up again.
From there we had further dust ups with the likes of Michael J. Fox who admitted not taking his medication before he addressed congress and when Rush Limbaugh commented on it all hell broke loose. Much was also made for the case of stem cell research by the late actor Christopher Reeves. His condition tugged at all our hearts and his words carried a lot of weight. This didn’t make the moral stand against the use of embryos any easier to say the least.
The issue has never been (but it quickly turned) to not do the research. Just that tax payer dollars would not go toward the funding of this type of testing. At the heart of it was the morality of killing life for the sake of science. Science that had not up to that point produced any tangible results only hope.
Enter Obama; after all he is our ‘hope and change’ president. With one wave of his very expensive pen he reversed the 8 year ban on federal funds and suddenly the clouds have broken and the lame shall walk again. Actually nothing could be further than the truth.
Great strides have been made in the last 8 years in stem cell research but without having to use embryos to do it. Scientist say skin cells actually show more promise in helping those with Parkinson’s disease and other debilitating conditions. Bush never said research couldn’t be done just that there were other ways and tax payer dollars were not going to fund the use of the controversial embryonic research.
While everyone was so quick to jump on President Bush for his backward Neanderthal thinking it looks like time proves him right once again. Professor Ian Wilmut may not be a household name but ‘Dolly’ the cloned sheep is.
Dolly was the first ‘cloned sheep’ and her segregate father was Wilmut back in 1997. Wilmut has now abandoned all previous techniques and is looking to stem cells made from skin claiming that is where the most promise is.
I’m not a rocket scientist or a doctor but it seems to me that when the likes of Professor Wilmut and others who have made such progress using skin cells and not an embryo to get such promising results. Why would the science community be so happy to sweep that aside and start from square one? If it’s not a political decision then I can think of no other answer.
Obama has stepped across a moral line which gives us more insight as to where he stands and perhaps more about the direction he wants to go. He is being lauded by scientist who will benefit greatly by this decision regardless if they show any results.
George Bush stood on his morals and didn’t back down to the elitist and I for one think he deserves the more credit because he challenged our brightest minds and they did not disappoint us.
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