"The lobby for embryonic stem cell funding is deeply dishonest. It involves a 'ban' that isn't a ban, a claim of cures 'right on our fingertips' (John Kerry) that falsely implies an early cure for Alzheimer's, and a discounting of promising stem cell research that doesn't involve the creation and destruction of embryos (cells from umbilical cords and adult bone marrow and teeth). Kerry and the Democrats have a case to make. They just don't want to make it honestly."
Columnist John Leo
"With the salesmanship of a faith healer, Kerry dangled promises no responsible scientist would countenance."
Slate columnist William Saletan
"John Kerry's assertions about stem cell research are so obviously untrue and so easily refuted that he must on some level actually believe them--as only an ideologue can."
Eric Cohen, writing in the Weekly Standard
If you think you've heard a lot about "stem cells" so-far, hold on to your hats. To Senator John Kerry, a man still groping for a justification for his candidacy, it must seem as if a gift has been dropped from the sky.
Provided the press gives him a bye [and what are the chances of that?], the junior senator from Massachusetts will continue to promise the moon, extolling what he and kindred partisans modestly describe as stem cells' "magical"--make that "biblical power"-- to cure. They are, of course, talking about embryonic stem cells--cells carved out of living human embryos--but this specificity is often lacking, part of a larger program of misinformation.
Author Saul Bellow once observed, "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." That's a nice way of saying that when rampant error is multiplied by indifference to ethical concerns and compounded by a cavalier disregard for elementary fact checking, it takes a while to shift through all the intellectual wreckage.
Let's start with a couple of examples. In a recent radio address, Kerry stated, "At this very moment, some of the most pioneering cures and treatments are right at our fingertips, but because of the stem-cell ban, they remain beyond our reach."
In a recent overwrought op-ed written for the Washington Post by embryonic stem cell proponents Ruth R. Faden and John D. Gearhart, we're lectured that President Bush "believes that the destruction of embryos can never be morally justified, no matter how much human suffering might be alleviated, even if the embryos are only still a clump of cells not visible to the human eye and even if the embryos will be destroyed in any event in fertility clinics where they are no longer needed."
Beginning tomorrow or Friday, we'll try to make sense of such wildly misleading statements. Suffice it to say here that there is no "ban" on stem cell research. The federal government has poured hundreds of millions into morally acceptable stem cell research, and states and private entrepreneurs are free to pour in their own resources.
Moreover, contrary to Faden and Gearhart, there are enormous ethical issues at stake, not only in embryonic stem cell research and cloning per se, but also in a move in the direction of what Eric Cohen calls "the normalization of the radical in biotechnology." Finally, while it sounds reassuring, in truth all "cures" from embryonic stem cells are theoretical, while the dangers surrounding the commodification of human life are all too real.
Let me devote the remainder of Part One to the politics of Kerry et. al's excursions into stem cell fantasy.
Sen. Kerry, as we all well know, comes into this campaign weighed down with considerable baggage, including a fondness for abortion that includes defending even partial-birth abortion. What to do?
As we've talked about many times here and in National Right to Life News, Kerry has feinted several times in a pseudo-pro-life direction. He trusts that the public, which only vaguely follows most issues, will conclude he is, in his heart of hearts (if not in his voting record) vaguely "pro-life" or at least not a hard-core pro-abortionist.
Someone once said to me Kerry is like a horse with a bit in his mouth. Pulling on it is NARAL and Planned Parenthood. This is nice imagery but completely misleading. Kerry needs no coaxing to aggressively advance the pro-abortion cause.
So, what are his options? As much as possible move the discussion away from abortion, which hurts Kerry, onto something else, which (if properly manipulated) might help Kerry.
Early on, Kerry obviously looked at polling data which show that when the question is poorly worded, it appears as if the public supports embryonic stem cell research. As NRLC's Legislative Director Douglas Johnson has pointed out, Kerry has gone even further, co-sponsoring a bill to allow the mass creation of human embryos by cloning solely for research, as long as they are not allowed to continue developing past 14 days. This stance was reaffirmed by Kerry policy director Sarah Bianchi who, according to the August 10 Wall Street Journal, "says the Kerry bill prohibits cloned embryos from developing for more than 14 days or from being implanted in a uterus so they could produce live births."
But, as is so often the case with Kerry, he has beaten a kind of retreat. On August 19, Bianchi said that Kerry "absolutely [does] not" favor creating human embryos for research? Why the pullback, at least rhetorically? According to NRLC's Johnson,
"Perhaps the Kerry campaign's internal polling has found results similar to those of two new polls, which were conducted independently in mid-August using scientific polling methods (by coincidence, both were released on August 23)." Both showed strong opposition to using human cloning to create human fodder for "medical research."
Kerry will, of course, continue to press his case, confident that a supplicant press will let him get away with shameless hype. Tomorrow, we'll continue our excavation.
"The lobby for embryonic stem cell funding is deeply dishonest. It involves a 'ban' that isn't a ban, a claim of cures 'right on our fingertips' (John Kerry) that falsely implies an early cure for Alzheimer's, and a discounting of promising stem cell research that doesn't involve the creation and destruction of embryos (cells from umbilical cords and adult bone marrow and teeth). Kerry and the Democrats have a case to make. They just don't want to make it honestly."