Senator Frist Has it Wrong
By Brent Colbert (08/02/05)
One has to ask how long it will take before eminent domain is applied to humans. When will governments decide that your economic potential is less then someone’s life that could be extended by harvesting your organs?
Senator Bill Frist (R) spoke out last week against a key policy of President Bush and endorsed government funding of embryonic stem cells. The Majority Leader who is also a doctor claimed that his support for the use of these embryos is consistent with his pro-life belief and that this would not lead to cloning or creating embryos simply for the purpose of harvesting the stem cells.
Unfortunately it is foolish to think that you can control science and prevent someone for creating life for simply for that purpose when a family member is diagnosed with a painful or fatal disease. We have already seen families have children for the sole purpose of trying to find a match for bone marrow, why would this be any different.
The media would have you believe that the President’s opposition to federal funding of research is a ban on the actual research but private companies are free to fund whatever studies they desire. Big research labs aren’t not investing more in embryonic stem cell research because there has been absolutely no breakthroughs despite the claims that were made during last years ballot initiative in California.
Government shouldn’t be expected to fund a 1000 monkeys working on a 1000 typewriters in the hopes that they find a cure for cancer and you can guarantee that private money never would. But some believe that the lack of government money is the only roadblock to miracle cures that we need to live forever. The false hopes that the embryonic stem cell lobby promotes is shameful. The way they play on the suffering of people in an effort to secure more government funds for a pipedream should not be tolerated or promoted by the Majority Leader on the floor of the US Senate.
Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Frist prefaced his support for Stem Cell research by saying that he was pro-life and a doctor. I cannot understand how by being either one he could support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Doctors are scientists that have to balance the available resources with the science that exists. So what is it going to be? Billions spent on research that so far has shown no potential or federal funds that could be better directed towards cord blood stem cells or adult stem cell research that is already showing promise.
This is the first step down a very slippery slope that will ultimately end with creating a life for the sole purpose of prolonging another, provided that science can find a process to actually use embryonic stem cells. I believe that Senator Frist is well meaning and a true scientist that believes in the limitless potential of the human mind to create cures.
Unfortunately I believe the good Senator has been blinded by this potential into the trap set by the pro-abortion lobby that seeks to reduce the value of a human life down to a collection of cells that can be discarded or used for other purposes.
Here in Canada we have a nasty habit of importing bad ideas from our neighbours to the south. Roe V Wade begat Dr. Morgentaler and the eventual elimination of any restrictions on abortions. Same sex marriage in Vermont and Massachusetts turned the Liberal government from being strongly opposed to changing the definition of marriage to pushing through same sex marriage in opposition to a majority of Canadians wishes. With our socialized medicine the oath of a physician to do everything in their power to preserve life could be trumped by a government looking to control costs by making a cost benefit decision on how much healthcare someone receives.
If a baby is reduced to nothing more than a collection of cells that becomes property there will come a day when government could add up the cost of preserving your life and compare it to the economic potential of others that could benefit from harvesting your parts after all it’s only a collection of cells right? I hope that President Bush chooses this important issue to make his first veto so that research dollars can be used where they will do the most good and preserve the value of all life.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Brent Colbert
