Posted on 03/09/2009 2:40:47 PM PDT by Pyro7480
Correspondent Lisa Stark’s report on ABC’s World News on Sunday almost completely slanted in favor of President Obama’s decision to overturn the ban on federal funding of stem cell research which destroys human embryos. Stark minimized the controversial nature of the research, devoting only one sound bite out of four to a critic of the president’s move.
Anchor Dan Harris introduced Stark’s report by selling the apparent promise of embryonic stem cell research: “President Obama is going to fulfill one of his campaign promises by ending restrictions on federally-funded research using embryonic stem cells. This could lead to better treatments and possibly cures for many diseases. But it will not end a visceral debate.” Despite this mention of the “visceral debate,” the report almost entirely focused on the hype from supporters of the research.
The ABC correspondent began by introducing Roman Reed, a paralyzed man who gushed over the president’s support for embryonic stem cell research: “President Obama cares. He’s taking a stance on suffering. He’s taking a stand for cures.” The graphic on the screen merely labeled Reed as a “research advocate,” and Stark added the word “tireless” to describe the disabled man and his parents. Reed gave an additional plug for the research in a second sound bite: “I have held in my hand a rat that can -- completely paralyzed -- embryonic stem cells were put in, and that rat is walking again. Embryonic stem cells are the key. This is huge.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
ABC is owned by Disney.
Just thinking that I will not be satisfied until they pump Mr. Roman Reid’s spinal neural cavity with embryonic stemcells.
Magical thinking usually results in human sacrifice if carried on long enough.
That means NIH is allowed (and some may say, REQUIRED) to go to the full extent of what is permitted by law, including funding for research on stem cells obtained by specially creating human embryos for research and then destroying them. Funding of such stem cell research is not blocked by the Dickey amendment, as long as the creating and destroying of embryos is itself done with non-federal funds.
Even the legislation passed by the last Congress and vetoed by President Bush did not go this far, but was very specific in restricting the funding to "excess" embryos created originally for reproduction.
The last time the NIH had an opportunity to say what policy it would really like, in 1994, it wanted funding for the full gamut of embryo research, including research using specially created embryos (an ethical line that even President Clinton was not willing to cross). Now President Obama seems to have given the NIH carte blanche.
2. Obama has gratuitously revoked the Executive Order of 2007 that encourages the NIH to explore sources of pluripotent stem cells that do NOT involve destroying human embryos. There was not a need in the world to do this, as the order was entirely positive and did not place any additional restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. That order led to funding for new alternative techniques, one of which -- the reprogramming of ordinary adult cells into "induced pluripotent stem cells" -- has just been hailed by the journal Science as the greatest scientific breakthrough of last year.
(Remember that one of the two groundbreaking studies making this advance, by Dr. James Thomson, was funded by the NIH, as were some later studies refining the technique and showing its benefits.)
The scientists have been saying that these iPS cells have very distinct SCIENTIFIC advantages over stem cells from destroying embryos, besides resolving the ethical problem -- and the order that gave this avenue attention and funding has been revoked, by an Administration claiming to advance "science."
ABC was cheerleading the stemcells in their top-of-the-hour news blurb today on the radio too. First they quoted some dorky Republican congressman who said Obama’s decision was just politics, then followed that with a story about a neck-down paralyzed teenage girl who now felt hopeful for a cure. It couldn’t have been framed any better to make the argument for fetal stemcell research.
“So, the future of health care is to force your wife to have an abortion”
No, have labs where they fertilized donated eggs with donated sperm, wait till a person is produced, then experiment with it.
Creepy, and unethical.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.