Vote for sanity this time

Friday, Aug. 4, 2006

The bill specifically said that research could only be conducted on embryos that would otherwise be discarded, and then only with the written consent of the couple that created them.

But apparently, the destruction of embryos — flushed away as if they’re useless — doesn’t count as murder. Only using those embryos for valuable scientific research that could eventually alleviate suffering and save people’s lives counts as murder in this president’s mind. No one in this administration, with all of their spin, deception and political posturing, has been able to dance around that stunning lack of logic.

To visually make his case that embryos should be allowed to be adopted by loving parents, and not used for research to cure illnesses, Bush had a dozen or so adopted embryo babies called ‘‘snowflakes” and their parents staged behind him to make his point. But even this is another cruel smokescreen and half-truth. Rather, the fact is there is not a demand for adoption of unused embryos. Even with substantial federal funds supporting parents who choose to adopt them, only 128 of the 400,000 or so rejected embryos languishing in deep freeze in fertility clinics have been adopted.

So let’s get this one straight: Embryos — a few days old and the size of a period — will not be killed by embryonic stem cell research. They will be terminated because of the In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) process. If the IVF process were outlawed, there would be no surplus embryos.

I don’t hear Mr. Bush talking about shutting down infertility clinics, but if he really thinks that the destruction of an embryo is murder, he should outlaw IVF.

There is a surplus of embryos frozen in freezers that will not be adopted and the numbers keep growing. They will eventually be disposed of— stuffed in medical waste bags, burned or flushed into sewers. Does Bush and his ilk really think it is more morally responsible to throw them away, rather than use them to help and maybe cure those suffering from wretched diseases and conditions like alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, diabetes, cancer and paralysis?

What can we do about this outrage? Unfortunately, we’re stuck with Bush for over two more years. But remember when you vote this November that Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Michael Steele — who says that he is opposed to the research on, again, moral grounds — recently compared embryonic stem cell research to the Holocaust.

Please vote for sanity.

Tim Klares, St. Leonard