Regards, Ivan
In memoriam
Posted on 06/08/2004 5:43:06 PM PDT by MadIvan
RONALD REAGAN’S decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease could help to persuade President Bush to change his mind about stem cell research, senators from both parties hope.
Fifty-eight senators, including 14 Republicans, have written to Mr Bush suggesting that he is standing in the way of a potential cure by limiting stem cell research.
Nancy Reagan, the former First Lady, is expected to take a more public role backing research after she has bid farewell to her husband of 52 years on Friday.
Mr Bush set strict limits for stem cell research in 2001. Under pressure from the Religious Right he confined the use of federal money to existing research to discourage the production of human embryos purely for scientific research.
Stem cells are typically taken from human embryos and grown in a laboratory. They can multiply into almost any type of tissue when transplanted into the body. But because the embryos are destroyed when the cells are extracted, the process is opposed by some conservatives, who link it to abortion. Scientists say that the cells hold the key to discovering treatments for degenerative neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson ’s disease.
White House officials played down the chances that Mr Bush will change his mind. But Republican supporters are hopeful that, as more becomes known of Mr Reagan’s final years, the suffering of an American icon will change the debate.
Mrs Reagan fiercely protected her husband from the spotlight for the last decade of his life. But she surprised many last month by saying that Alzheimer’s “has taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him. I just don’t see how we can turn our backs on this.”
Orrin Hatch, Republican senator from Utah and a supporter of extended research, said: “Maybe one of the small blessings that will come from [Mr Reagan’s] passing will be a greater opportunity for Nancy to work on this issue. I believe that it’s going to be pretty tough for anybody not to have empathy for her feelings.”
Regards, Ivan
In memoriam
Ping!
Debate away, but the Fed Gov doesn't need to be involved this time.
Ronald Reagan, who was strongly pro-life, would not have approved of government sponsored fetal stem-cell research. In fact he wouldn't have approved of such research period.
This is a Democrat initiative, with the usual RINOs joining the club. It is, I suspect, meant to mousetrap Bush. If he refuses, the media will say he is ungracious to Reagan. If he goes along with it, his base will be extremely angry with him. I certainly will be. I'm willing to cut Bush slack on certain issues, but NOT on the issue of killing babies. As far as I'm concerned, it would make it impossible for me to vote for him. Abortion and other forms of killing innocent human beings for fun and profit are beyond the pale.
While I sympathize with the plight of those suffering from Alzheimer?s, I have serious qualms about destroying human embryos to get spare parts for humans. President Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer?s at the age of 83 which is ten years above the average life span for males in the US. Nobody can deny he had a long and good life up to that point. I seriously doubt death will be abolished, and there are some moral lines that are better left uncrossed.
It is really shameful that people have fed a fairy tale to Nancy Reagan that funding this research would have cured her husband.
Mr Bush set strict limits for stem cell research in 2001. Under pressure from the Religious Right he ...
It can't possibly be that his decision was sincere, no, it was made because of pressure from the "Religious Right" whatever that is....
he confined the use of federal money to existing research
That is a really bizarre way to say it. He confined the use of federal money to research using existing embryonic stem-cell lines, not "to existing research" whatever that means. The article makes it seem like he froze all grants and projects and said, No more. Also please note that stem-cell research involving stem-cells not from embryos can proceed apace.
Scientists say that the cells hold the key to discovering treatments for degenerative neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson ’s disease.
If so then the existing embryonic stem-cell lines can be used.
I believe that it’s going to be pretty tough for anybody not to have empathy for her feelings.”
I have the utmost empathy for her feelings which is why it pisses me off to see her feelings being manipulated and used as a political prop.
And that doesn't even touch on the undenaible fact that all advances thus far have been made using adult stem cells.
I am now fully with Nancy and the stem cell research people on this. Reagan's death had nothing to do with it as far as I am concerned.
To the extent that the radical pro-life lobby opposes any advancement in this vital life-giving research on stem cells and human cloning, I am ready to reject it outright.
But, what if, as I believe the people behind this initiative argues, that 100's of thousands of embryos are destroyed anyways as a result of IVF procedures?
I think it is a very difficult issue. I don't know where to come down on it.
None came to mind.
Well, that is morally illicit too.
The primary reason why these people want fetal stem cell research is that it would put a veneer of respectability on abortion. But if credible research reports are to be believed, adult stem cells are just as useful for medical purposes, and they don't involve these moral issues.
IVF is morally wrong for the reason you mention. In the case of married couples who cannot have children naturally, the obvious answer is that if they want children, they should adopt them.
Depends on how much you value the humanity of those who are pipetted to death.
Embryonic stem cell research not only destroys innocent human life, but it has also thus far produced no scientific benefits - not a single person has been cured. By contrast adult stem cell research - a process that protects the sanctity of life - has led to medical cures. In light of that fact, why don't we invest our money in research that not only respects all human life, but offers a real remedy right now to many diseases? Pouring millions of dollars into embryonic stem cell research will not only destroy human life in its earliest stages, the misdirected research may very well deny millions of people the restorative power of adult stem cells. And as far as President Reagan is concerned, perhaps we should just let him speak for himself:
"I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare the unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception until natural death, and I do proclaim, ordain, and declare that I will take care that the Constitution and laws of the United States are faithfully executed for the protection of America's unborn children." - Presidential Proclamation, Jan. 14, 1988
There are 78 lines (whatever that means) of embryonic stem cells that President Bush allowed research to be continued on. I haven't heard of one tangible result. It seems to me that if embryonic stem cells were all they were cracked up to be, the papers would be brimming with success stories.
Nancy Reagan was smart in many ways... and I guess her stepfather was a doctor.But, for some reason, I wouldn't trust her to be my doctor.
58 Senators found out word was flying around Washington at Mr. Reagan's impending death and decided to make political hay with it and exploit it with this curiously-timed memo.
That's all this is - it is well-documented that calls were going out to Washington on Friday. This Reagan office received 300 calls on Friday alone to confirm.
Sickening.
If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Breakthrough in adult stem cell research (06/02/2004)
Dr Charli Kruse and his team at the Institute for Medical Molecular Biology at the University of Lübeck has been successful in developing a new process which has enabled him to isolate cells from various animal and human tissues which have the properties of pluripotent adult stem cells. The fact that such stem cells can be isolated – from the gland tissue of rats and also of a 74-year-old patient – is a breakthrough in stem cell research. This small research group’s findings are all the more significant for two reasons: firstly, because researchers have been trying in vain for quite some time now to find such pluripotent stem cells in mature organisms, and secondly, because science now has a cell source to use in regenerative medicine, cell therapy and also in biotechnology. More
President Bush is right to have faith that God will provide.
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Have missed you IV, nice to see y'all again!
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