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Mike Miller wrote:
On Sun, 1 Jan 2006, Jonathan King wrote:
On 1/1/06, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
The Korean researcher claimed to have cloned human cells, cloned a
dog and produced human stem cells from cloned tissue. He probably
made it all up. So this means that we are stuck using frozen embryos,
but not in the US where GWB in his infinite wisdom has decided that
they should be thrown in the trash instead.
That's not exactly correct. Bush's executive order only affects
research funded by the federal government.
Right. It isn't illegal to do research with human embryos, but research
is very limited due to the federal funding ban.
I now Mike is really annoyed by Bush's order, and I am, too. But what
annoys me most was the fact that Bush was told that we did not, in
fact, have really enough existing stem cell lines to support near- to
mid-term research as a matter of fact, but Bush claimed that we did.
In retrospect, it was one of the first well-known cases where the
administration twisted or invented facts so that they appeared to
support a policy position that was developed independently of the facts.
So some of these claims by Bush from an address given on August 9, 2001,
were known to be false at the time?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010809-2.html
I skim read this. What I read looked good, but I cannot make a
definitive conclusion yet. But I get the impression that he thought a
lot about both sides of the issue.
As a result of private research, more than 60 genetically diverse stem
cell lines already exist. They were created from embryos that have
already been destroyed, and they have the ability to regenerate
themselves indefinitely, creating ongoing opportunities for research.
I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for
research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life and death
decision has already been made.
Leading scientists tell me research on these 60 lines has great promise
that could lead to breakthrough therapies and cures. This allows us to
explore the promise and potential of stem cell research without
crossing a fundamental moral line, by providing taxpayer funding that
would sanction or encourage further destruction of human embryos that
have at least the potential for life.
The great congressman Henry Waxman had a few things to say:
http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=875
I get the impression that the fight over "60" or "23" or "78" or
whatever is more a question of "how we count," that is, which cell lines
are viable as opposed to the total number. Considering that Bush heard
different things from different people, and that he isn't himself a
scientist, I find it hard to characterise his statements as a "lie." At
worst it is an exageration. I don't think that it impacts the core of
his position in any way whatsoever. Arguing about the exact number is
pure niggling.
I felt that Waxman's "fact sheet" was not full of facts but political
posturing.
Stephen
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