On Monday, the Senate will begin its debate on a measure to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The bill in question would essentially override a 2001 decision by President Bush that limited funding for such research to a relatively small number of pre-existing stem cell lines — lines that critics say have proved of little use to scientists because of their age and contamination.
Presdent Bush has threatened to veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which rescinds the ban on federal support for embryonic stem cell research. If he does so, it would be the first veto of his presidency.
The issue pits the president in a rare clash with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist — a surgeon — who broke with Bush to endorse the House-passed bill last year, and who has been under growing pressure to schedule a vote in the Senate ever since.
From today''s Washington Post.
To deal with first things first: When the House passed stem cell legislation in May 2005 by a margin of 238 to 194, 50 Republicans joined with almost all the chamber's Democrats in support. The House bill would expand the supply of embryonic stem cells by allowing federally funded research on cells derived from embryos created for fertility treatments or donated from in vitro fertilization clinics. Those embryos would have to be in excess of the clinical needs for infertility treatments and otherwise destined to be discarded. They would have to be obtained with written consent and acquired without any payment to the donors.
This sets the stage for -- finally! -- a showdown between the executive and legislative branches of government. At that point, Republicans in both houses of Congress will have a gut-check on their loyalty to Bush and the Religious Right, versus the reality of running for reelection while not standing up for research that is supported by the vast majority of Americans.
Despite all those precautions, opponents say the destruction of the days-old embryos is the taking of human life -- the equivalent of murder. President Bush shares that view, and that is why he issued an executive order in 2001 limiting federal funding to the few lines of stem cells already in existence. He has threatened his first veto if the Senate approves the House bill.
Pro-life groups and individuals view a fertilized ova and embryos as full human beings with a soul. Thus when stem cells are extracted from a surplus embryo, and the latter dies, they believe that a murder has occurred.
It does not matter whether the stem cell extraction is done by a government researcher, or is done by an employee of a private company and sold to the government.Either way, "a human person has been murdered in order to supply the cells." Many pro-life groups also oppose the use of already-existing stem cells, because if one were to trace back far enough in time, the ancestors of the present-day stem cells came from an embryo that was murdered. Many groups also oppose the regulations of some fertility clinics which call for the routine destruction of surplus embryos.
Junk logicopalooza, but the question remains: Why is the President so opposed to the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act?
"You call them the elite. I call them my base."
--President George W. BushTake action with DefCon to hold the religious right to account for their selectively-applied "sanctity of life" propaganda and opposition to potentially life-saving scientific research.
You can email Senator Frist directly through the through DefCon as well.
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