I've paid close attention to the paper trail that follows every governmental intervention against stem cell research in the U.S for months now, and I'm reaching a state of panic.
We are about to watch a President veto what just might be the most productive scientific health care breakthrough the world has ever seen. That he can bring himself to do this in the face of present-day potentials is mindboggling. That he can bring himself to do it in the face of what just might be possible in the future is somewhere beyond that. That he does it in the name of fundamentalist moral values which represent the views only of a distinct minority in this country is one more indicator of the need for the existing majority to coalesce and make its presence felt.
Most of us, right or left, are pretty clear on the reliability of modern science and the clarity of collected evidence in the critical areas which face us: medical advance, energy sanity, getting back in step with the rest of the world on global warming. So as the medical cannabis doctor in Oregon said after the Supreme Court doomed thousands of cancer patients and AIDS sufferers to either go back to persistent nausea or become illegal pot consumers: "Is there any common sense left in this country?"
The Bush Administration, already the class clown of the global warming discussion, has willed us to the back of the room in stem cell breakthrough, allowing South Korea, for instance, to most recently uncover the next layer of mystery on the road to full stem cell utilization.
Pro-lifers find some allegiance with the "culture of life" dialectic the Administration has used to spin its recalcitrance on stem cells. But are they aware the Bush veto could deny major advances that do fit within their moral parameters?
Consider a disease with an ungainly name....Krabbe's Disease. It's an enzyme disorder that leads to blindness, deafness, cognitive deterioration and death before age two. But a number of babies in a Duke University study showed historic results from therapies built on stem cells from stored umbilical cords, a tissue residue heretofore routinely discarded in the delivery room. In some cases, deteriorated brain tissue was restored. After the Bush veto, along with the general ban on new embryonic stem cell reserch, there will be a moratorium on new umbilical cord banking, too. Why?
Regardless of your political perspective, this is about common sense. We can cure more diseases and disorders for people of all ages, or not. So far, this Administration chooses not. It's an embarrassment to our culture, and it can't be tolerated.