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I hope Bush gets Alzheimers. Ignorant .
Scratch that. I hope Laura gets it, and he has to watch.
Well its a good thing he didn't use the opportunity to veto huge pork spending by the legislature the last 4 years, you have to save your big punches for vetoing research that can save lives.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7964239/
House votes
to lift ban
on stem cell funding
Bush promises to veto legislation loosening restrictions on research
WASHINGTON - Ignoring President Bush’s veto threat, the House voted Tuesday to lift limits on embryonic stem cell research, a measure supporters said could accelerate cures for diseases but opponents viewed as akin to abortion.
Bush called the bill a mistake and said he would veto it. The House approved it by a 238-194 vote, far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto.
“This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life,” the president said Tuesday. “Crossing this line would be a great mistake.”
An alternative offered by Republican leaders that would fund research using stem cells derived from adults and umbilical cords rather than from embryos, passed 430-1, with Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the lone opponent. But the focus was on the embryo bill.
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the embryonic research bill would force taxpayers to finance “the dismemberment of living, distinct human beings.”
The rhetoric didn’t sway many Democrats.
“I don’t need a lecture from the majority leader on moral and ethical leadership,” said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., referring to questions that have been raised about DeLay’s travel, fundraising and associations with a lobbyist now under federal criminal investigation.
Supporters of the measure said many embryos that would be studied would otherwise be discarded rather than implanted in the wombs of surrogate mothers. The moral obligation, they argued, rested on Congress to fund research that could lead to cures for diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
“Being pro-life also means fighting for policies that will eliminate pain and suffering,” said Rep. James R. Langevin, D-R.I., who was paralyzed at 16 in a gun accident.
Many members voted for both measures, saying that together they represented hope for the largest number of people critically ill with diseases that scientists say could be treated or even cured through stem cell research.
To support only one measure, said Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., would be to “offer hope to some and sympathy to others.”
Bill would lift Bush's 2001 ban
The more controversial bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike Castle, R-Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would lift Bush’s 2001 ban on federal funding for new research using stem cells from embryos that had not been destroyed before August 2001.
The House vote on the Castle-DeGette bill was intended mostly as a show of force to help propel it through the Senate and, the sponsors hope, into compromise talks with the White House.
In the Senate, Arlen Specter, R-Pa. and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, asked Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to immediately bring the stem cell issue to the Senate floor. Backers of embryonic stem cell research said the measure was supported by 60 senators, enough to break a filibuster by opponents, and could even get a two-thirds majority that would be enough to overpower a presidential veto.
Emotional debate
The House floor discussion often echoed the emotional terms of the abortion debate and Terri Schiavo’s right-to-die case.
Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, a doctor of obstetrics, played the sound of a fetal heartbeat over the House speaker system, declaring, “This is what it’s all about, folks.”
The bill favored by GOP leaders and Bush was widely supported by members of both parties. Sponsored by Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Artur Davis, D-Ala., it would provide $79 million to increase stem cell research using umbilical cord blood and establish a national database for patients looking for matches. It also would clear the way for studies on stem cells derived from adults.
The two address very different procedures.
Blood saved from newborns’ umbilical cords is rich in a type of stem cells that produces blood in the same way that transplanted bone marrow produces it. The Ins ute of Medicine recently estimated that cord blood could help treat about 11,700 Americans a year with leukemia and other devastating diseases, yet most is routinely discarded.
The Castle-DeGette bill deals with embryonic stem cells, which are the building blocks for every tissue in the body. Attempting to harness those stem cells’ regenerative powers is in very early research stages, but many scientists believe it has the potential to one day create breakthrough treatments.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Is there a correlation between the idiocy of the Texas representatives highlighted above and Texas's subpar education standards?
I hope Bush gets Alzheimers. Ignorant .
Scratch that. I hope Laura gets it, and he has to watch.
That's not nice.
Damn...I can't believe some sub-atomic goop is being considered life.
There is no reason to use embryonic stem cells. Much research has already shown that adult and umbilical cells are as good or even better.
Y'all need to actually do some homework instead of letting Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi speak for you.
There are plenty of reasons to use embryonic stem cells and perhaps you too should do some homework instead of letting Frist and Dubya speak for you.
Don't you think?
Have you actually looked at the comparative studies between the two? Not the news articles...
For your information, I have done my homework. I expected more from you, Joe...
I have done my homework Mr. Travis and my opinion is that stem cell research is good. That is just my opinion.
Joe, I never said stem cell research should be banned. I specifically said embryonic stem cell.
this solution sounds better to me, 430-1?? you'll almost never see that again.An alternative offered by Republican leaders that would fund research using stem cells derived from adults and umbilical cords rather than from embryos, passed 430-1, with Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the lone opponent. But the focus was on the embryo bill.
I have no problem with that alternative either.
This is just political bull either way. It is my understanding that the Koreans are so far ahead of us in this game and this bill addresses research that is already out of date.
In other words, this is a waste of time taht will only serve to give campaigns fuel for their rhetoric. Washington DC is operating normaly.
"Science is part of the axis of evil."
Exstatic is now on my ignore list.
I stand corrected. But I do support stem cell research.
this is one of the things i totally disagree with bush on...
Unfortunately, its doubtful Scott, but I bet there is a correlation between the lack of Federal funding for stem cell research and our Nation getting so far behind in the development of this Science that someday soon we may have third-world class medical treatment in this country.Is there a correlation between the idiocy of the Texas representatives highlighted above and Texas's subpar education standards?
As Arlen Specter stated, this "life" (in quotes because it's debatable) is going to be destroyed anyway whether this science is done or not.
Bush isn't speaking out against in vitro fertilization though.
As for the destroy life to save life defense, then what's the purpose of supporting the death penalty?
"I happen to believe that the death penalty, when properly applied, saves lives of others. And so I'm comfortable with my beliefs that there's no contradiction between the two."
—Bush, April 14, 2005
Bush is not banning Research-He is simply refusing to use government funds for it.
Wouldn't it be nice if he refused/banned other things to get government research $?
I think that most voters don't understand this research and are only paying attention to sound bites.
Myself I am for spending the $, but I believe I am in the minority.
Nancy Reagan spoke out for the research.
Reagan > Bush.
This will pass eventually.
Since when did Dubya become fiscally conservative?Bush is not banning Research-He is simply refusing to use government funds for it.
Wouldn't it be nice if he refused/banned other things to get government research $?
I think that most voters don't understand this research and are only paying attention to sound bites.
Myself I am for spending the $, but I believe I am in the minority.
This is understandably a controversial topic. But if in fact the destruction of human embryos is morally wrong, some serious restrictions need to be put on fertility clinics immediately. Anyone who doesn't have the balls/conviction to speak out against the destruction of embryos in that arena doesn't have a leg to stand on when condemning embryonic stem cell research. Unfortunately, I think Manny is right in his assessment that this is all about political jockeying.
Human blastocysts, from which embryonic stem cells are extracted, are hardly "sub-atomic goop." If we knew how to extract and manipulate subatomic particles to the extent that we do stem cells, we would be talking about an entirely different realm of technological possibilities. You should have paid attention in school.
You should have paid attention in school.
Nice
From Yahoo:
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Friday threw his support behind legislation to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, breaking with President Bush and religious conservatives in a move that could impact his prospects for seeking the White House in 2008.
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Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who opposes abortion, said modifying Bush's strict limitations on stem cell research would lead to scientific advances and "bridge the moral and ethical differences" that have made the issue politically charged.
"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitation put into place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," the Tennessee lawmaker said on the Senate floor.
"Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified. We should expand federal funding ... and current guidelines governing stem cell research, carefully and thoughtfully, staying within ethical bounds," he said.
i ain't vetoin' nothin'
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