Stem cell veto

If Bush believed stem cell research was murder, if using embryos for research was murder, I don’t understand why he only vetoed funding for the practice. One under that impression would, I think, act to outlaw the practice outright.

Instead, in 2001, when Bush signed the bill that outlawed creating new ‘lines’ for research, it was a strange gesture from a man who otherwise claims to never compromise his ideals, and who unabashedly thinks in black and white. Why are we not seeing a push from Bush to make stem cell research illegal, and to prosecute the doctors who participate in such research? Bush has drawn criticism from scientists for being a hypocrite because of this. He is, in effect, saying that he will allow federal funding for some murder, but no more past an arbitrary point. And he’ll allow private and state funding for more murder. That does not make sense to me.

Other than that, I do not understand why Bush has vetoed the bill at all. The moral implications he and other Republicans are so fond of pointing to are poorly founded.

These embryos are extras that are used in in-vitro fertilization. They are otherwise slated for destruction. Why is it okay to destroy these unfeeling, unconscious piles of cells, but not to use them to conduct research that could save countless lives? It purely does not make sense.

Additionally, it is impossible to point to a clump of cells and say, “This will be a human.” Those cells could become the placenta, or the umbilical cord, which are both commonly destroyed. And what if the embryo splits and creates two humans? Which one is the original then? Even until 18 weeks, the fetus cannot feel pleasure or pain, it is not awake nor self conscious. To protect it simply because it is a human is entirely arbitrary. Medical procedures that are funded by the government and take place daily inflict much more pain and suffering on thinking, feeling creatures.