Posted on 07/29/2005 4:54:13 AM PDT by AliVeritas
WASHINGTON, July 28 - In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening to veto the measure.
Mr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who said last month that he did not back expanding financing "at this juncture," is expected to announce his decision Friday morning in a lengthy Senate speech. In it, he says that while he has reservations about altering Mr. Bush's four-year-old policy, which placed strict limits on taxpayer financing for the work, he supports the bill nonetheless.
"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," Mr. Frist says, according to a text of the speech provided by his office Thursday evening. "Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If this type of research was so promising, the private sector would be sufficiently financing it already. Asking the Feds for money speaks volumes...
GOOD FReepin' riddance!
I am appaled at your recent support for embryonic stem cell research. In your own words:
"I am pro-life," Mr. Frist says in the speech,..... "I believe human life begins at conception." ..... "I also believe that embryonic stem cell research should be encouraged and supported."
If you are in favor of using human life for science experiments, you CANNOT be pro-life.....
OK, it is finally time to dump the feckless Frist. McConnel, who looks like a simp but is an honest-to-God pit bull should replace him forthwith.
I just sent Senator Frist an email about this. He has turned out to be just another "pro-life" phony.
I was re-reading the Republican Party Platform for 2004 just the other night, and it became so apparent to me that this Platform is merely "window dressing" to keep the conservative base happy during election time. The new "big tent" Republican Party is in charge now, and you know what it stands for....absolutely NOTHING.
I hope Bush vetoes this bill if it clears the Senate, and I hope and pray that it doesn't clear with a veto-proof majority.
Frist ain't running in 06. I say Sessions or McConell for Majority leader in 07.
ping
> If this type of research was so promising, the private sector would be sufficiently financing it already.
What about cancer research? alzheimer's? Should that be entirely funded by the private sector? Privatize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? What ought the government's role be wrt biomedical research? Heavy or limited involvement? Or out of it completely?
I find it interesting that the recent USSC decision regarding eminent domain has riled everyone up (and rightfully so) but the use of embryonic stem cells is "ah, so what, maybe it's ok".
If it is unjust to take one person's property against their will for the benefit of another, surely it is unjust to take one's body parts in the same fashion.
Here is a copy of a letter just sent to Frist. Please everyone if you are against this procedure do the same.
I am writing you to ask that you re-consider your position on stem cell research. By your own admission you believe that LIFE begins at conception. So any procedure, regardless of the unknown potential good that come from it, that takes the LIFE that you profess to exist is unjustifiable. This is terribly inconsistent. Life is life independent of physical size or stage of maturity. If you would not carve up a 3 week-old baby for medical research because it is immoral, then allowing the same procedure to be done on a HUMAN being at an earlier stage of growth is equivalently immoral. Do not support this bill or any other that devalues the LIFE of people incapable of defending themselves against such a barbaric procedure. Be consistent.
Looks to me as if Dr. Frist is lining up a high-paying job as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry once he leaves office.
That makes as much sense as anything. After all, he never was presidential material.
I agree!
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