Krauthammer’s Take [NRO Staff]
From last night’s All Stars.
On Obama’s executive order on stem cell research:
What Obama is doing is he's expanding the range of the federal funding of research involving embryonic stem cells. He is allowing the use of embryos that were created in fertility clinics and are not going to be used anymore.
Now, I supported that when I was on the president's council of bioethics and in my writing, which I suppose is why the White House invited me to the signing ceremony.
But I declined for three reasons. One is the president has left open the cloning of human embryos in order to destroy them in experiments. Secondly, he leaves open the creation of human embryos entirely for the purpose of research and experimentation.
And thirdly, he had a memorandum which he signed in which he talks about restoring the scientific integrity in government decisions, which is an outrageous attack on Bush.
I disagreed with where Bush ended up drawing the line on permissible research, but he gave in August of 2001 the single most morally serious presidential speech on medical ethics ever given, and Obama did not, even though I agree on where — I agree more on where he ended up.
So I think it was disrespectful. And in pretending, as Obama did, that there's never a conflict between ethics and science, he was wrong.
I suspect that they're not going to be asking me to any more signing ceremonies in the future.
This is a man deeply involved in this issue because of his own disabilities. I have great respect for him and always have. Even when I have disagreed with him (and I do on the use of embryo's for experimentation, even those from fertility clinics, which are a horror in and of themselves, but that is a different post), I have always listened carefully because he is one of the most intelligent men I know of.
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If what he is saying is true, that Obama has left the door open for cloning and creating embryo's for the sole purpose of experimentation, then Obama just flat out lied to the American people in his address on the issue. Are we getting used to that yet?
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It seems every move Obama makes either plunges our economy deeper into a morass or he emboldens the culture of death.
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The thing that the msm seems to hardly mention is that embryonic stem cell research HAS continued during the Bush years. Bush DID NOT ban it, he only banned federal funds from funding it. And since we HAVE SO MUCH EXTRA MONEY NOW, why not use taxpayer money to fund something that offends so many of us?
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Bush also allowed federal funding for research on 60 lines of embryonic stem cells.
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