JL Wilson http://independentcountry.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-very-first-veto.html and the big angry negro b psycho http://psychopolitik.com/2006/07/19/embryos-and-the-state/ sum up my views on the stem cell research veto. I don’t want to be forced to pay for this research. I might contribute to such research and approve of it wholeheartedly, but I don’t think federal money, stolen from taxpayers, should be used. Of course, I don’t think federal money should be used for much of anything.
I take issue with all the “Snowflake Babies” and their parents who pride themselves on having rescued some embryos from destruction. Don’t they know that implanting an embryo is very risky, that a substantial proportion of implantations fail and leave the embryo dead? If you think an embryo is a “person”, you would not be justified in endangering it that way. You must keep it frozen or allow it to grow in a medium into an undifferentiated mass of protoplasm. Even thawing is a risky venture. Don’t go there. Of course, if you are like me, you don’t assign personhood to a blob of cells in a petrie dish; therefore, you can do what you like with them.
The veto was the right thing for all the wrong reasons. I have to give it to Bush for keeping a straight face while he moralized on the sanctity of life. I bet he had to practice a few hundred times to get through it without cracking up. It was a good idea to keep the media out since he could not be sure that he wouldn’t totally lose it during the speechifying.
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Thanks for your comment. I originally saw it on the Stress Blog and followed it over.
You seem a generally informed person who takes ideas seriously.
Very few people who favor stem cell research differentiate between advocating the right to conduct this research and governments right (through US taxpayers money) to finance it.
You refer to the frozen embryos in a petri dish not being a "person" but I gather (although don't know) that you would oppose infanticide and perhaps the partial birth abortion and or post viability abortion. I'm speaking of ethical/moral considerations - not legal ones.
Frankly I see this as a non constitutional issue (turned over to the states) where you would see severe restrictions in S. Dakota and Guam but absolutely none in CA or NY.
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