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Jewish World Review June 1, 2005 / 23 Iyar, 5765 Too much culture of life could result in millions of unnecessary deaths By Froma Harrop
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Do the president's views on stem cell research matter anymore?
Bush opposes spending federal dollars on research that involves the
destruction of embryos. The House ignored his veto threat and passed a bill
that would fund stem cell research using excess embryos from fertility
clinics. The Senate is sure to follow. And even if a veto sticks, the work
marches on in other countries and here, with money from some states and
private sources.
Millions dream and hope that embryonic stem cell research will
someday lead to cures for Alzheimer's, diabetes and any number of dreadful
diseases. With all that's going on without federal funding, should we care
if Washington sits out this promising research? Unfortunately, yes.
America has the world's most admired program for funding
research. It's not just the money. It's the way the federal government
chooses who gets support. Any researcher can apply directly for a grant from
the National Institutes of Health. A panel of scientists decides which
proposals deserve funding.
"It doesn't depend on living in a certain state, or having
powerful friends in high places or even being in the good graces of your own
institution," explains Kenneth Miller, a Brown University biologist. "The
NIH is the envy of the world, believe me."
Most countries use a top-down system for funding science.
Applied here, it would be like the federal government just giving a whole
bunch of money to Harvard.
In California, meanwhile, taxpayers are spending $3 billion on
embryonic stem cell research. That's wonderful, but America's most brilliant
researcher can't get a penny of it if he or she lives in Wisconsin.
The Bush administration has barred embryonic stem cell research
from getting federal money the normal way because of certain moral concerns.
It is important to untangle those fears — and also see how they've been
twisted into political compromise or, some might say, downright hypocrisy.
An embryo does indeed represent potential human life. But the
point at which that organism becomes a human is a moral, not scientific,
argument. Most people, your writer included, think that a tiny cluster of
cells in a lab dish is not a human being. Others, such as the president, say
it is.
As the public clamors for embryonic stem cell research, many
"pro-life" politicians claim to have found a middle ground. They are willing
to fund research using excess embryos sitting in fertility clinics. But they
vigorously condemn research using embryos made through therapeutic
cloning — which is what leading scientists prefer.
This view requires fancy footwork, as typified in a column by
Charles Krauthammer. While we might argue over "the moral dignity due a tiny
human embryo," Krauthammer writes, making one for the purposes of research
crosses "a critical moral red line." Using "embryos left over from IVF
clinics," on the other hand, would be fine and dandy.
This argument, of course, is logically and morally vacuous.
Scientists assure us that embryos created through in-vitro fertilization or
made by therapeutic cloning are biologically the same thing. One is not more
or less dignified than the other. And labeling some embryos as "leftover"
does not change this fact.
But short of kidnapping thousands of women and forcibly
implanting embryos in their wombs, the clinics will have no choice but to
throw most of the extras out. If Bush truly objected to the destruction of
embryos, he would close the clinics down.
Polls show most Americans far ahead of the Bush administration
in supporting embryonic stem cell research. They want to get on with it.
The life-saving cures people yearn for may not be around the
corner, it's true. But by denying top researchers access to the best grant
system on the world, the Bush administration delays their discovery. The
result could be millions of unnecessary deaths. And the victims will be,
without a doubt, human beings.
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© 2005 Creators Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
