Saturday, June 23, 2007

Stem Cell Hypocrisy

Mister Bush and the Republican Party's Stem Cell Hypocrisy

A. Alexander, June 21st, 2007

Mister Bush vetoes stem cell bills, so he insists, because the use of embryonic stem cells involves the taking of life. Perhaps, recognizing the glaring hypocrisy of the Republican Party's so-called pro-life stance, Senator Brownback, GOP presidential candidate, has called for the party to do more to protect the life of human beings once they've been ejected from the mother's womb. That might be a good idea, because the American public is catching onto the Republican Party's life-related hypocrisy in a pretty big way. And, Mister Bush's stem cell veto will do nothing to alter that perception.

Many have pointed out Mister Bush's almost gleeful willingness to send fully realized -- living, breathing, laughing, walking, talking, feeling and thinking -- onetime human embryos to their deaths. At last count, Mister Bush is responsible for the extra-vaginal abortion of more than 3,500 members of the U.S. military and the taking of as many as 600,000 innocent Iraqi lives. With each passing day, more and more people are coming to the conclusion that Mister Bush and the Republican Party would, if it could help them politically, drop a bomb and snuff out lives here, there and everywhere. Well, everywhere that is, except inside a woman's womb or in a petri dish.

Intra-womb life is precious to the politically opportunistic Republican Party; extra-vaginal life, however, doesn't seem to mean quite as much.

It is also interesting that Mister Bush vetoes embryonic stem cell research based upon his so-called concern for "life," but is unmoved by the fact that his veto is sentencing millions of disease-riddled people to certain death. Mister Bush and the Republican Party's pseudo-pro-life partisans, however, hope to save political face by pretending other forms of stem cells hold equal promise in the battle to save lives. It may be true that some adult and umbilical stem cells could be useful, though some question the political motivation behind these recent findings, but there isn't a scientist worth their research that would say these other cells hold the same promise as do embryonic stem cells. But Mister Bush and his supporters merrily offer their political face-saving false hope. They happily promote other forms of stem cells, while knowing full well that they are simply creating a red-herring that is intended to muddy and confuse the political waters.

Mister Bush knows that his continued vetoing of embryonic stem cell research is contributing directly to the pain, suffering and death of literally millions of human beings. These lives, however, like those he sends off to fight wars based upon false pretenses, don't appear to mean anything to Mister Bush and the Republican Party. It is almost as though a living, breathing, thinking, and feeling human being is worth less to Mister Bush and the Republican Party than is a clump of undifferentiated cells.

One wonders if Mister Bush and Republicans will realize that all these frozen cells, if allowed to achieve extra-vaginal life, are one day going to grow up and be in need of health care and social security. By that time, of course, the life of the onetime frozen blob of human cells will be worth much less to Mister Bush and Republicans. There will be no healthcare and there will be no retirement security for these onetime frozen embryos whose "lives" mean so much to Mister Bush today.

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