Families have a lot riding on stem cell debate (Michigan)

[CornField]

http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1142982612209850.xml&coll=1

LANSING -- Legislation to ease Michigan's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research got further Tuesday than it ever has -- it actually received a public hearing -- but the impassioned testimony signaled just how deeply the opponents are divided.

Ann Arbor resident Danny Heumann, who is paralyzed from the chest down and looking for a cure from such research in part so he can play with his young daughter, wheeled himself before House Health Policy Committee members and urged them not to make stem cell research a "political football."

"We're looking to all of you as our leaders in government to do all you can to alleviate our suffering ... Please don't let us down."

Then there was Stacy and David Giesen of Marshall, who testified against the legislation with toddler son Frank in tow. The couple obtained a frozen embryo from a fertility clinic and had it implanted. They say permitting embryonic stem cell research would sanction the killing of human life.

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I do not understand those who would rather see unused/unwanted embryos simply destroyed instead of them being used in research. It boggles my mind.

[babylonsister]

1. I have a stepson who will be dead by 50 if they do not pursue

this and he just had his third child.
He's 36 years old and has Friedrich's Ataxia.

[CornField]

2. Related article from Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=anWRnkrT98Ss&refer=us

In 2002, when he was an 18-year-old freshman at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Jeff McCaffrey was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident. A Catholic and opponent of abortion, McCaffrey is now an ardent campaigner for research using stem cells from human embryos.

``I have no moral qualms,'' said McCaffrey. ``It is simply cells,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``Scientists can make those stem cells that are blank turn into spinal cells and heal my injury.''

People such as McCaffrey present a quandary for Republicans, who are split over whether to allow federal funding for research on new stem cells from human embryos. Senate Democrats plan to force a debate on the issue in the coming months and use it in the campaign leading up to the November elections.

...

Republicans in the past often have benefited from such ``wedge issues'' -- subjects that divide Democrats' constituencies, such as gun control, abortion and gay marriage. Stem-cell research may be one of the first wedge issues that hurts Republicans more because of President George W. Bush's stand against it; polls show a majority of the public disagrees with him.

Yup, it's looking that way and I have to admit it is nice to see them create their own monster for a change.

[bliss_eternal]

3. It's control...

they seem to believe only they, in their ultimate wisdom know what is best for an embryo--no matter what. It's up to them to decide for ALL women as opposed to giving women the choice to abort if they want it. Anything is disposable to them, that doesn't serve their purposes, to manipulate, control and yes even dispose of if it doesn't serve their agenda somehow.

:hi: Cornfield!

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Call it what it is: Superstition

The idea that early-stage embryos, blastocysts, and stem cells have magical and divine properties is simply a modernized form of "sympathetic magic". And for most of its history, Christendom was opposed to such atavistic thinking, preferring its own fantasies, which at least did not pretend to be rigorously scientific.

The Christians have begun incorporating the fear- and superstition-based fantasies of old-time Paganism (the "paleopaganism" of Bonewits) into their belief systems, even as modern neo-Pagans reject theophobia and (re)construct belief systems based on ethical behavior rather than fear. The Age of Irony has become truly epochal.

--p!

[salin]

5. Odd, that second snip...

just what do they think happens at the clinic where they received the frozen embryo, to those embryos that are not used? Have they just never thought about the practice of discarding embryos? Why is that better than using that embryo to foster life saving research? Or do they think that we, through our tax dollars, should underwrite the cost of saving all extra frozen embryos in perpetuity?