The abortion debate long ago shifted to euphemisms. It became Pro-Choice and Pro-Life.
The same thing happened to the campaign I helped start to ban human genetic engineering. One side developed the euphemism: Support stem cell research the other side is still Ban human genetic engineering. We're still early in this debate.
John Kerry has come out four-square in favor of stem cell research. Read on to see what he really means.
The problem is, Kerry has the vote that counts on this. He could have stem cell research if he weren’t being disingenuous.
The Senators who oppose human genetic engineering have 58 votes to pass a bill banning human genetic engineering in the U.S. The opposition, which includes Kerry and H. Clinton, are demanding that this issue be a 60-40 vote for passage of the ban. They have a solid vote against cloture and they will use it.
The problem is that few people object to stem cell research, certainly not President Bush. The scientific issue is that human stem cells are fertilized eggs that can be grown into living human beings. They can become genetically engineered humans (the Nazi ideal). That is what must be banned. If the people who focus on stem cell research would agree to ban the growing of stem cells into human beings, then they could have all the U.S. funded stem cell research they want. The reality is that they don’t just want stem cells, they want unrestricted use of stem cells including for the purpose of human genetic engineering.
Before you read on, you should know that there is pure hype about Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is irrelevant because all the stem cell research done so far shows no benefits of injecting stem cells into the brain. Research continues in Britain with stem cells but no one is wasting more time on Alzheimer’s. The underlying technical issue of getting new genetic information into any living body cell has been a failure for more than 15 years. Those failures are on much more critical diseases such as fatal childhood defects known to be genetic (Alzheimer’s is not a mono-genetic disease).
To recap. 58 out of 100 U.S. Senators would vote to have stem cell research expanded if they could be sure that the research won’t lead to human genetic engineering. 42 Senators, including John Kerry won’t agree to that specific ban on the use of stem cells to create engineered humans. So it is Kerry and 41 other senators who are in fact blocking the expansion of stem cell research. Kerry could vote for the ban. Bush has already endorsed the ban in his eighth month in office.