Today, the President did the unnecessary.
He signed an executive order reversing the Bush administration’s ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
The President himself billed this as a win of science over ideology. But is it really that plain and simple? Should harvesting embryos — something so incredibly unacceptable to a such a large portion of the American public — be funded with everyone’s tax dollars?
And an article published just one week ago makes me wonder if the President cares at all about real science. From ScienceDaily:
Mount Sinai Hospital’s Dr. Andras Nagy discovered a new method of creating stem cells that could lead to possible cures for devastating diseases including spinal cord injury, macular degeneration, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. The study, published by Nature, accelerates stem cell technology and provides a road map for new clinical approaches to regenerative medicine.
“We hope that these stem cells will form the basis for treatment for many diseases and conditions that are currently considered incurable,” said Dr. Nagy, Senior Investigator at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Investigator at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cells and Regeneration. “This new method of generating stem cells does not require embryos as starting points and could be used to generate cells from many adult tissues such as a patient’s own skin cells.”
Mr. President, as long as there are legitimate alternatives that produce the same results, why must we force Americans to pay for a scientific experiment that may not even be necessary?
Obama says he wants to focus on science over ideology — but isn’t ignoring the alternatives in order to appease his left-wing base doing just that?
You want to spend my hard-earned tax dollars to fund stem-cell research? Fine. But please, spend it on Dr. Nagy.
UPDATE: Want more info on stem cell research? Check out this blog.
Update x2: Here is another interesting article from the Concerned Women of America.
