Michael J. Fox Denounces Bush Stem-Cell Policy in Kerry conference call

Boston Herald ^ | 9-16-04 | Noelle Straub

[Flux Capacitor]

FOX FIRES VOLLEY OVER STEM CELL POLICY
By Noelle Straub
Thursday, September 16, 2004

WASHINGTON - Actor Michael J. Fox added his Hollywood power to Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign yesterday, denouncing President Bush's stem-cell research policy as blocking promising research on major diseases. "We've missed opportunities in the last four years," Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, told reporters in a conference call arranged by the Kerry campaign. "There's an urgency in the Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and diabetes communities to find a solution. So these four years wasted really (have) come at a heavy price."

Bush restricted federal funding for stem-cell research to those human embryonic stem-cell lines already in existence by Aug. 9, 2001. Kerry has promised to lift the restrictions.

Polls show most Americans support the research. "(Bush) said you can fly the plane, but he didn't give us the fuel," Fox said.

Bush has refused to cross a "fundamental moral line."

[Flux Capacitor]

Well, great. I've always loved Michael J. Fox. I love his movies. He's always seemed like a nice, regular guy, and I certainly have never heard him mouth off about politics. And, damn it all, he was Alex P. Freakin' Keaton!

I can forgive him for being upset with Bush over this (even though he's wrong), as the matter is an extremely personal one for him and he is fighting against time.

But for Fox to have allowed himself to be used by the John F. Kerry kampaign itself.... just makes me sick. Thanks a lot, Michael.

-Dan

[jimfree]

I understand his feelings. He is stricken with a tough disease. I won't change my opinion of his acting.

[OpusatFR]

"I can forgive him for being upset with Bush over this (even though he's wrong), as the matter is an extremely personal one for him and he is fighting against time."

Alot of people fight against time, but I could not support the expediency of taking another life to save my own.

[12 Gauge Mossberg]

Aw man! MJF was one of my favorite actors growing up in the 1980s. Especially Teen Wolf! Why did he have to drink the koolaid?

[coconutt2000]

I love how some actors think they can act like experts on subjects in which they have no clue about.

[ravingnutter]

Conveniently ignored facts by the proponents of stem cell research: Origins of the Current Policy

In accordance with the Dickey Amendment, passed each year since 1995, research involving the destruction of human embryos cannot be funded with taxpayer dollars. This is not Bush's policy; it is the law of the land, passed annually by Congress and signed by both Presidents Clinton and Bush. This law does not ban embryo research, and it does not fund embryo research. It is a policy of public silence.

In 2000, the Clinton administration discovered a loophole that would allow the NIH to provide some federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research without asking Congress to overturn the Dickey amendment. By law, the government could not fund research in which embryos were destroyed. But if the destruction itself were funded privately, the government could offer funds for subsequent research on embryonic-stem-cell lines derived from the destroyed embryos. In other words: A researcher could destroy endless numbers of embryos in his private lab, and then use the fruits of such destruction to get public funding. This would not violate the letter of the law, but surely the spirit.

When he took office in 2001, President Bush put implementation of the Clinton guidelines on hold. He wanted a way to support potentially promising research, but he also did not believe the federal government should create an ongoing incentive for the destruction of human embryos. On August 9, 2001, President Bush announced his new guidelines: federal funding for research using stem-cell lines that existed before the announcement, but not for those created after. In this way, federal money would not act as an incentive for destroying human embryos in the future, but stem cells derived from embryos already destroyed in the past could be used with federal money to explore the basic science.

This was the fundamental bargain of the policy: no limits on embryonic-stem-cell research in the private sector (unlike much of the world, which regulates this practice), but no public subsidies to encourage a limitless industry of embryo destruction.

At a May 11 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Aging, for example, Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease expert Peter Rabins and Washington University Alzheimer's researcher John Morris both told the senators that they do not expect embryonic stem cells to play a role in Alzheimer's treatment. Experts on other diseases speak with similar restraint. In the end, the research may bear therapeutic fruit and it may not — we cannot know in advance. It may cure some diseases and not others. But by seeming to promise medical salvation without limits, stem-cell advocates risk blurring the difficult ethical questions that surround this new science.

Inflated Promise, Distorted Facts

Though embryonic stem cell research advocates euphemistically refer to the current state of research as an “early stage”, the unfortunate reality is the goal of embryonic stem cell therapies is, at this point, more accurately described as a pipe dream. No researcher is anywhere close to significant progress in developing practical embryonic stem cell therapies.

The only thing certain is that the cost of that research will be high. If embryonic stem cell research had real and imminent possibilities, private investors would be pouring capital into research hoping for real and imminent profits. Instead, venture capital firms are contributing to political efforts to get taxpayers to fund research. What the venture capitalists seem to be hoping for is that taxpayer funding of stem cell research will increase the value of their stakes in biotech companies. The venture capitalists can then cash out at a hefty profit, leaving taxpayers holding the bag of fruitless research.

Ron Reagan Wrong on Stem Cells

“Embryonic stem cells are not going to be the source of a cure for Alzheimer's”, Dobson told the capacity crowd. ”Are you aware that not one human being anywhere in the world is being treated with embryonic stem cells? There is not a single clinical trial going on anywhere in the world, because (embryonic) stem cells in laboratory animals ... create tumors. Nobody will use them.”

By comparison, adult stem cells have shown great promise in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, Dobson explained. And they do not require the destruction of embryonic human life, since they can be harvested from such sources as umbilical cord blood and bone marrow.

Dr. Dobson: Media Hiding Truth on Stem Cells

[cyborg]

He does have a disease that can be helped by stem cell research.

[Republican Wildcat]

More and more lies from the left. Bush is the first and only president to authorize any stem-cell research, and we know that stem-cell research could do nothing for Alzheimer's.

[Flux Capacitor]

Neither could I, but since I'm not the one with Parkinson's Disease, it's an easy thing for me to say.

I don't fault Fox for feeling the way he does. It's seeing such a good guy allowing himself to be used as the campaign tool of such a despicable excuse for a human being as John F. Kerry, that is infuriating.

-Dan

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

IMO Michael J. Fox is just paying back the Hollywood elitists who've helped him in his difficult times. My opinion of him won't change.

[BibChr]

Wrong title. You should ask the Admin Mod to change it. Should be, "NOTED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHER Michael J. Fox" etc.

(c;

I agree about Fox. Comes across as a really nice guy. Pity he's let himself be used. "I'm sick; kill babies for me!" Sad legacy.

Dan

[Republican Wildcat]

Bush restricted federal funding for stem-cell research to those human embryonic stem-cell lines already in existence by Aug. 9, 2001.

Here's a lie from the reporter. He didn't "restrict" anything -- he OPENED it up.

[cyborg]

Effin' uses veterans, women with disease,etc. It's all about him. He could care less about other people.

[IrishGOP]

Hollywood power

power? hardly. Anyway, stem cell research goes on and on and on, day after day after day. Sorry Mikey, but you are spinning, ya know, "spin city"

[Wallace T.]

Isn't this joker a Canadian? It is very presumptuous of him to mouth off about the politics of a nation where he is a guest. Perhaps Mr. Fox could consider returning to the care of the socialized medicine of his native land.

[BlkConserv]

Fox is an icon to yuppie conservatism. It's sad to see that he's speaking out on behalf of people who have an agenda other than the actual purpose of curing diseases.

[mountaineer]

Bush restricted federal funding for stem-cell research to those human embryonic stem-cell lines already in existence by Aug. 9, 2001.

Interesting how the writers, Michael J. Fox, Kerry, et al., all conveniently ignore the fact that there are other types of stem cells being researched besides embryonic ones. As far as I know, there's no restriction on the federal funding for that research and, of course, people can research whatever they want on their own dime, so maybe Michael J. Fox, et al., should dig into their pocketbooks.

[Core_Conservative]

I think that MJF is a great actor - however, why doesn't he see to it that his own country (Canada) supply the research dollars for his disease. It has not yet been proven that stem cells can "cure" anything.

[dfwgator]

But Michael should have done enough research to know that it's adult stem cells which are more effective, President Bush has done nothing to discourgage this. He comes across as being as ignorant on this issue as Ron Jr.

[Rokurota]

Michael J. Fox is just paying back the Hollywood elitists who've helped him in his difficult times.

Have they helped him? Seems to me that he has bascially disappeared.

Hollywood to Michael: "Hey, kid. You're not young anymore. You've got a 'disease.' Nice knowing you, kid.