Senator Frist Surrenders His Own "Frist Principles"
I am not in the least surprised by Senator Frist's position on overturning the President's policy on embryonic stem cell research. Four years ago he stated he favored federal funding for ESCR on condition that only leftover embryos from IVF treatments be used to derive the stem cell lines.
But Frist's support for funding for ESCR was not supposed to be a stand-alone proposal. Rather, Frist envisioned the (then proposed) federal funding of ESCR as one part of an overarching federal policy that the good senator humbly labeled the "Frist Principles." Under the Frist Principles funding of ESCR was to be joined with the outlawing of all human cloning. In other words, Frist advocated trading greater funding for ESCR in return for a total ban on human somatic cell nuclear transfer.
One can agree or disagree with that position. But by explicitly not conditioning his support for expanded federal funding of ESCR with the passage of a cloning ban, Frist has surrendered his own supposed principles.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:27 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Maybe Will Saletan is delaying his last installment to assess how the Frist collapse impacts his conclusions.
So ESCR will slip to leftover and then to any "donations".
ESCR with or without cloning can slip to fetal research and fetal farming.
Cloning for research will lead to mass fetal farming and / or designer super-children.
Is a veto enough? Is it better to have no standards or set a line in the sand?
I believe the only way to win the cloning fight long term is for adult stem cells to provide most, if not all, of the clinical benefits that ESCR researchers now speculate may be available from cloned or natural embryos. I believe the chances of that happening are very real, since recent research seems to indicate that some bone marrow stem cells may be plutipotent, but only time will tell.
As to the issue of late stage embryo and fetal farming--not to mention organ harvesting from people like Terri Schiavo--that is definitely on the drawing board already. It will be up to "the people" to prevent it, since the elites of medicine and law probably will not. The question is: If CURES! CURES! CURES! are promised, are there any meaningful lines that most people will be willing to finally draw?
Well, if you want to laugh instead of crying, we were talking about Frist and cloning and decided:
1) The real research and cloning, some on extraterrestials is of course done at Area 51. Elvis sightings, are either him reanimated or cloned.
2)Bush' restrictions are meant to monopolize government's hold on Area 51 successes until a clone army can be sprung upon an unsuspecting world.
3) Frist found out about it and wants his own clones!
4) Arnold Schwartzenegger meanwhile supported stem cell research so that we may all become superhuman with him primus inter pares, also with him benefitting immensely from the nutritional supplements that he gets kickbacks from.
5) However this may result in a sort of self fulfilling film prophesy as some of us may become rogue Terminators and come back from the future to stop this from happening.
6) May the Terminators succeed!!! Hasta la vista baby!
"The question is: If CURES! CURES! CURES! are promised, are there any meaningful lines that most people will be willing to finally draw?"
That's what's so neat about "Frist Principles." The lines drawn can simply be re-drawn when it's convenient or easisest to do so.
Wesley, heard you on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Great summary of the situation.
He apparently has a big audience. I got a lot of comments from that brief call. Thanks.
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