Disability Rights Advocate Backs Bush Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill Veto (Joni Eareckson Tada)

Life News ^ | 7/20/06 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A disability rights advocate who has been a spinal cord injured quadriplegic for nearly four decades says she is happy President Bush vetoed a bill that would have forced taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research. Joni Eareckson Tada was among those gathered at the White House as the president announced why he vetoed the measure.

Joining fellow disability advocates, ethicists, researchers, theologians and legislators, Tada said she stands with "countless Americans with disabilities who believe that our cause is not advanced when human life is sacrificed in hopes of finding a cure."

"People like me -- who are medically fragile -- are left vulnerable and exposed in a society that views human life as a commodity which can be experimented upon or exploited," she explained.

Tada said the disability community has another vested interest in the Presidential veto. Despite lack of reporting by the media, people with disabilities can be encouraged by recent and dramatic advancements in adult stem cell research, she said.

Adult cells may be more elastic than scientists previously thought and are offering short-cuts to treatment which embryonic cells cannot match. Over 70 medical conditions are either being treated using adult stem cell therapies or are presently in clinical trials.

“I am grateful for the principled stand our President has taken, first and foremost because of the sanctity of human life, but also because restrictions on use of taxpayer dollars may well encourage funding in the overlooked and less commercially viable field of adult stem cell therapy," Tada explained.

Tada's views contrast with those of Michael J. Fox, a well-known actor who suffers from Parkinson's disease.

Fox blasted Bush's veto claiming it went against public opinion, even though polls show a plurality of Americans oppose tax-funding of embryonic stem cell research.

"I find it frustrating that the president would use his first veto of his time in office to thwart this research," Fox said.

"I am respectful of those who oppose this research and their reasoning for it but they do represent a minority," he added.

Related web sites:
Joni and Friends International Disability Center - http://www.joniandfriends.org

[wagglebee]

Joining fellow disability advocates, ethicists, researchers, theologians and legislators, Tada said she stands with "countless Americans with disabilities who believe that our cause is not advanced when human life is sacrificed in hopes of finding a cure."

Perfect!

[wagglebee]

Pro-Life Ping.

[wagglebee]

MORAL ABSOLUTES PING

DISCUSSION ABOUT:

Disability Rights Advocate Backs Bush Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill Veto (Joni Eareckson Tada)

Joni Eareckson Tada is an amazing woman and her comments here are wonderful.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be included in or removed from the MORAL ABSOLUTES PINGLIST, please FReepMail wagglebee.

[firewalk]

"People like me -- who are medically fragile -- are left vulnerable and exposed in a society that views human life as a commodity which can be experimented upon or exploited," she explained.

.

[turnrightnow]

[Fox blasted Bush's veto claiming it went against public opinion, even though polls show a plurality of Americans oppose tax-funding of embryonic stem cell research.

"I am respectful of those who oppose this research and their reasoning for it but they do represent a minority," he added]
So a plurality of Americans equals a minority?

["I find it frustrating that the president would use his first veto of his time in office to thwart this research," Fox said.]
They ignore that after Clinton dodged this issue altogether Bush was first to authorize research with lines of non-viable embryonic cells. He vetoed expansion of research on viable lines with federal funds.

[lilylangtree]

Wonderful. Adult stem cells can do the job but people conveniently ignore that fact.

[wagglebee]

I have long believed that if embryonic stem cells showed any actual promise, private corporations would be pouring billions into it so they could realize profits from any breakthroughs. There are no prohibitions against privately funded research. Biotech companies are spending piles of money on adult stem cell research and they are seeing results. The fact that they are not investing in embryonic stem cells, leads me to conclude that they know there's nothing there.

[wagglebee]

Adult stem cells are ALREADY working, while embryonic stem cells have yielded ZERO results.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1668795/posts

[lilylangtree]

I believe you need to be asking wagglebee. From my limited reading, there's no reason to be taking embryonic stem cells when adult stem cells are making great progress. Suggest you address your question to wagglebee.

[devane617]

BS Joni...You DO NOT SPEAK FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE DISABLED COMMUNITY!!! I am part of that community, and overwhelmingly we are upset the President vetoed the bill. This is just plain BS. Go to newmobility.com forum for a view of how the disabled community feels.

[wagglebee]

Eight years, ZERO success, sure sounds like an overwhelming failure to me.

[tutstar]

ping...

[tutstar]

bump

[John Lenin]

Sooner or later the government will decide which people will live or die based on their disability.

[wagglebee]

Really, once the government got behind curing Polio in the 50's it was done within a couple years. From the moment Kennedy announced his intention to put a man on the Moon, it took eight and a half years.

So yeah, I would call eight years and billions of dollars with ZERO results (other than God knows how many murdered embryos) an absolute failure.

[tutstar]

Got a link to substantiate your comment?

[wagglebee]

There is absolutely NO LIMIT to embryonic stem cell research funding.

[wagglebee]

Private organizations can spend all the money and destroy all the lives they want. But then again I'm sure YOU consider some leftist scientist at Harvard is an unbiased source.

[wagglebee]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663376/posts

[cva66snipe]

BS Joni...You DO NOT SPEAK FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE DISABLED COMMUNITY!!! I am part of that community, and overwhelmingly we are upset the President vetoed the bill. This is just plain BS. Go to newmobility.com forum for a view of how the disabled community feels.

She speaks for my wife {quad of 20 years} and for me as well disabled. But then again we do not support the ADA as applied to the private sector either. Adult stem cells are the obviously the most promising way to go. I also have two other family members life long confined to wheelchairs {30 plus years} and they support Joni :>}

[SaintDismas]

I don't understand how people like MJF can think so much of themselves in this way that someone else's life's meaning is reduced to what it's sacrafice can do for ME, ONLY ME. Have to say though that I saw him on t.v. the other day when I watched that movie on CBS about Mort Kondracke and his deceased wife Millie. He looked really really bad and I almost didn't recognize him--couldn't believe my eyes

[turnrightnow]

The whole argument boils down to one's view of and/or belief in God and the uniqueness of humans within creation. It's very easy (and logical) to have a utilitarian view of life if one believes that we are all no more than cosmic evolutionary accidents who therefore have no relative value compared with any other accident on the planet.
Killing many, no matter where they lie on life's continuum, for the benefit of a few (who will then eventually die of the next disease/illness) is immoral, no matter how you rationalize it.

[Coleus]

Got a link to substantiate your comment? >>>


they've been using bone marrow transplants (audlt stem cells) to treat and cure cancer patients for decades. I'm sure many yrs. of research went in to developing that process before they tried it out on humans.

[Coleus]

God Bless her.

[Coleus]

Diabetes has been cured in mice using drug therapy and it's just too bad the jdrf would rather advocate for fetal research killing babies rather than research for humans with something that has already been proven successfully in mice. Many pro-life people unknowingly donate to this organization .

 

Diabetes in Mice Cured Using Non-Embryonic Sources

 

Diabetes Foundation Loses its Way

 

Adult pancreas stem cells can make insulin

 

A Stem-Cell Defection, A congressman educates.

[stands2reason]

She speaks for my wheelchair bound best friend.

And we here at Free Republic don't believe in socialistic government spending for questionably ethical and questionably effective research.

[stands2reason]

I disagree.

This has nothing to do with evolution, and a belief in God is not necessary to show humanity towards the unborn.

[Coleus]

No, I disagree.

I wouldn't use this treatment if I had AIDS for the same reason why Joni Eareckson Tada wouldn't use embryonic stem cells to treat her spinal cord injury as stated in this thread.

It's immoral and unethical for human embryos to be killed in order to use their cells to cure someone else with a disease. That's why President Bush vetoed the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill.

[lilylangtree]

Thank you. I didn't know.

[jwalsh07]

"People like me -- who are medically fragile -- are left vulnerable and exposed in a society that views human life as a commodity which can be experimented upon or exploited," she explained.

Amen to that.

[devane617]

So, if we find embryonic stem cells helps people with SCI's then I encourage you and your wife both to not us the treatment. However, the vast majority of the disabled community will be lined up day one...

[srmorton]

I don't think she was claiming to speak for the entire disabled community. She was merely offering her own opinion to which she is entitled. As others on this thread have already said, there is nothing to prevent private investment in embryonic stem cell research because the research itself is not banned, only federal funding of it. IMO, there is nothing in the constitution that specifically authorizes the federal government to be involved in paying for any medical research at all.

[cva66snipe]

So, if we find embryonic stem cells helps people with SCI's then I encourage you and your wife both to not us the treatment. However, the vast majority of the disabled community will be lined up day one...

I doubt it very very seriously in this old world it's gonna happen anyway. Think about something. Where would Joni be right now had she not had her SCI? Her adversity which she overcame by both faith and her own efforts have served her well. If her SCI had been cured within days or months where would she be?

You will never have an illness free existence in this world as we know it. It simply is not going to happen. Yet some of the greatest advances come from the ones with the illness. Einstein had a learning disability one which allowed him to also be able to channel his thought process. Or how about a master musician/composer functionally deaf? A one handed concert pianist? An Apostle in the Christian faith who was most likely functionally blind yet who wrote much of the New Testament letters. A blind mind who in the 1800's developed a reading system for the blind still used today. Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Milsap, would they have the talent they acquired without their adversity? Or was their tallents a direct result of what dealing with their adversity produced? Carly Simon and Mel Tillis both stutter yet both sing.

You would think someone who spent the last 39 years of her life in a wheel chair with only limited finger movement would pay any price to be free from it. Joni has been in that chair roughly since 1967. I have no doubt if Adult Stem Cell research provided a cure she would probably try it. I also have no doubt she did weigh the moral implications and even the cost of using Embryonic Stem Cells as well before saying what she did. She is a highly intelligent woman.

And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul£ in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?

[devane617]

What a load of Horse%^$# . I would eat a dump truck load of frog crap if I thought it would help. I DO NOT feel like I am serving some "greater purpose" because I have a disability. I want to be 6'3", truck driving, beer drinking, hooker chasing, abled body guy. Screw touchie-feelie...give me frog crap....or embryonic stem cells, I don't care, just make it happen...By the way -- How much money is the good ole USA Federal Gov spending on AIDS research?

[SuziQ]

"I find it frustrating that the president would use his first veto of his time in office to thwart this research," Fox said.

Just shows how emotion can cloud the facts. The President didn't say that research couldn't be done, he just vetoed FEDERAL FUNDING for it. Private researchers are free to pursue this work on their own dime, or on those of whom think the research might actually become profitable.

[cva66snipe]

I want to be 6'3", truck driving, beer drinking, hooker chasing, abled body guy

Yep that is a real admirable goal and would do you and humanity so much good. /sarcasm. But Joni understands an eternal principle and reality that you don't. She knows she will be freed from her quadriplegia forever. She understand the soul exist forever but this CURSED body we have on earth does not as it is to be replaced. Think about it.

Ever wonder why there are more diseases known to man than man can now ever hope to cure? We suffer the results of such things as bird flu or Mad Cow disease perhaps because man in his arrogance altered what was perfection or at least kept such in a natural state of which these diseases did not mutate to the killers they are.

I'm not anti-scienticic research nor anti-modern medicine. But I would rather have an average skilled doctor who prays and acknowledges that life and death are GOD's sovereign right to give and take and for his hands to be guided over one who thinks his acquired skills and mans greatness is the ultimate answer.

Think about Aids since you wish to bring it up. Several theories are thought to be it's origin. A creation in a laboratory gone wrong or unnatural sex with animals. Yes innocents catch it but it spreads like wildfire though in a life style which honors the sole agenda of self gratification. Spending money to find cures to AIDS is not necessary as the disease is by in large preventable to start with much of it caused by some selfish persons life choices and their actions then harm the innocents as well. The most sure way to spread AIDS has been known now for two decades. Yet the behavior which gives that disease the strongest foothold to spread is now endorsed and blessed by our government as being a right.

Billions of dollars could have been saved and millions perhaps at this point billions of lives saved if man would control his behavior. But that goes completely against the New Age of SELF Pleasure teachings. I know quite a few SCI's myself. Let's remember SPI means Spinal Cord Injury a result of accidents. Some like Joni's were flukes. Many are also the result of just plain bad irresponsible actions like seeing how fast that new motor cycle or car can go. They out number spinal cord diseases likely by a very high ratio. Strange enough some I know who had SCI just didn't get the message the first time and try for seconds with very unnecessary risk.

In my youth the biggest threat to being put in a wheel chair was Polio. Oddly enough it was PREVENTION that helped eliminate the disease. Much of it required better sanitation standards and some of it was vaccine. BTW my wife is a quad from Polio's 30 year later revisit to her CNS namely her Mylein. Polio still isn't curable BTW even half a century after the vaccines were developed.

I'm not in a wheel chair and to look at me you would see nothing to indicate a disability. But Adult stem cell research may one day produce a cure for what I have although at this point the doctors can't actually even name it as it is multiple Neurological dysfunctions mostly involving sensory processing. I've had it most of my 48 years with only the last 12 of it finally to the point of disability.

That disability put me early in life in a place where I would learn that life can be lived with or without a wheel chair and content of heart makes the person. IOW I've been around it all my life including two cousins with spinal cord diseases. I've seen friends with MD, CP, Autism, Spinal Bifia, Blindness, Deafness, Polio, ADD ADHD, you name it.

When my girlfriend went quadriplegic while we were on a date I knew we still had a future. We had a future because there was life. The death of my first wife made me appreciate my more my wife now. We don't dwell on cures although she would love to be back on her feet. But rather we share a codependency on each other now. She hears what I can't. I lift what she can't. She's a lucky quad for C-5-C-6 and she knows it. She's an incomplete quad. She had arms, hands, and limited trunk. 21 years ago this coming September the doctors told her she would never move her arms again. Well when I want a needle threaded she does it. Was it the doctors who got her there? No. It was prayer and her determination as well. It took the Physical Therapist to even find the signs that she previously as a child had Polio.

As much as she would love to walk though she would rather be healed of other far more damaging things namely some issues from the 35 years of abuse from various persons before the quadriplegia happened. Those hurts are the ones that bother her the most. Joni's writings though was one who helped her come to terms with many issues beyond the wheel chair. Healing comes in many forms the most important being healing the part of us we take with us through eternity which is the soul.

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri JULY Dailies

8mm

[exit82]

So, how many unique human beings should we kill to fix your particular problem?

[devane617]

"...But Joni understands an eternal principle and reality that you don't. She knows she will be freed from her quadriplegia forever. She understand the soul exist forever but this CURSED body we have on earth does not as it is to be replaced. Think about it..."

In your first paragraph you presumed the status of my soul/salvation and I stopped taking you seriously.

[devane617]

...So why not protest IVF clinics? Aren't they the real culprits?

[cva66snipe]

In your first paragraph you presumed the status of my soul/salvation and I stopped taking you seriously.

I presumed NOTHING about your soul. But rather I have actually read her books and what I posted in that paragraph came from what she has written and teaches. Anybody on this thread who has read her books will tell you that.