{"id":4884,"date":"2005-08-03T13:50:48","date_gmt":"2005-08-03T17:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4884.html"},"modified":"2005-08-03T13:50:48","modified_gmt":"2005-08-03T17:50:48","slug":"the-inevitable-drive-to-ban-stem-cell-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-inevitable-drive-to-ban-stem-cell-research\/","title":{"rendered":"The inevitable drive to ban stem-cell research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on his comments yesterday<\/a>, I’m pretty sure the president is unaware of his own policy on stem-cell research.<\/p>\n

“There are ethical dilemmas when it comes to science, and I think it’s very important for a government to recognize those ethical dilemmas,” Bush told the reporters. “The dilemma I was faced with was do I allow the destruction of life in order to advance science.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, that wasn’t the dilemma at all. Even if we operate under the president’s worldview, Bush still “allows the destruction of life in order to advance science,” he just limited its federal funding in overly-restrictive ways. What the president described yesterday was a completely different dynamic, independent of federal researching grants — whether stem-cell research should be permitted in this country at all<\/i>.<\/p>\n

In some ways, this is the logical extension of the right-wing approach to the issue. As far as Bush and others who share his views are concerned, a three-day old blastocyst is a human person. To destroy it for medical research, no matter how many people are suffering or how promising the science, is akin to murder. This is a dilemma Bush faced four years ago, when he decided<\/a> that he’d accept<\/i> the destruction of life in order to advance science. Given how serious this controversy is, how long it’s lingered, and the likelihood of legislation on this to end up on his desk soon, you’d think the president would understand the basics of the debate by now. Then again, given Bush’s history, I should probably know better.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Bush’s comment was revealing. The debate on the Hill right now is whether to expand federal funding for this field of science. We don’t hear about it often, but the right is planning a concerted effort to change this debate and roll back the conversation considerably. Forget this contorversy over funding; they want a fight over a flat ban on the research.
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\nEarlier this week, for example, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family issued an alert<\/a> to its membership on the recent flury of legislative successes by the GOP. The group noted, however, that the issues the religious right cares about most haven’t generated as much attention as they’d like.<\/p>\n

Capitol Hill was abuzz last week with last minute politicking on several pieces of legislation just prior to the annual August recess. But in the rush, many family-friendly bills were left behind — tabled until the fall session begins in September.<\/p>\n

[…Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute] said pro-family groups will step up their efforts when lawmakers return in September and they’ve already made a list of their favorite proposals.<\/p>\n

“Number one on the plate would be a Federal Marriage Amendment,” he said. “Number two would be a stem-cell bill gotten through the Senate to ban embryonic stem-cell research<\/b>.” (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is what the Dobson crowd wants and will be demanding of their allies in Washington soon. How will the GOP blow off the base? And how will the far-right react if it does?<\/p>\n

Just as importantly, it’s worth noting that the public, including most Republicans, strongly supports not only the existence of stem-cell research, but federal funding for it. It’s helpful when the Dobson crowd takes such fringe positions because it reminds the mainstream of just how far gone the GOP base has become.<\/p>\n

In fact, it’d be helpful if Republican office holders are asked, “James Dobson and other conservative leaders want a flat ban on stem-cell research in this country. Do you think Dobson and his allies are wrong?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on his comments yesterday, I’m pretty sure the president is unaware of his own policy on stem-cell research. “There are ethical dilemmas when it comes to science, and I think it’s very important for a government to recognize those ethical dilemmas,” Bush told the reporters. “The dilemma I was faced with was do I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}