It is a tiny, insensate little cluster of cells smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. It is a potential but not actual person, in my view, something which may grow to be a human but is not yet morally the equal of a functioning, feeling human embryo or delivered baby. Blastocysts are bred in labs all the time as part of fertility therapy. The vast majority end up being discarded. They have enormous potential for stem cell research, research which could aid millions of people suffering from illness or critical injury. (A brief explanation of embryonic stem cells, courtesy of the National Institues of Health, may be found here.) For White House press secretary Tony Snow to characterize Bush's opposition to stem cell research by saying that Bush is opposed to "murder" (his term) is an obscenity. Bush is fine with being responsible for more executions than any other single person in U.S. history. He is fine with an Iraqi death toll of 3,000 persons a month. He is fine with fighting against national health care, a stand which costs countless people their lives. But by God, he draws the line at blastocysts! In fact, his first veto will be of a bill to advance stem cell research, a bill that had bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. (It is worth noting, however, that of the 37 negative votes in the Senate, 36 were Republicans and one was a Democrat. Guess how Santorum voted.)
Bush's repulsive, immoral position on this issue is a perfect reflection of the grotesque fanaticism of the Religious Right, a group which represents a minority of this country's Christians. Bush is purposely dooming countless people to lives of suffering and premature death. And this suffering is being inflicted at the behest of "pro-life" forces that care more about blastocysts than they do about real, live, actual feeling babies, babies who are often desperately ill and in chronic agony. The Republican Party's ugly, cynical manipulation of this issue is reason alone for their utter and total defeat.
Make this a 2006 campaign issue. Fight to unseat EVERY Republican who voted against embryonic stem cell research. Draw the line against these bastards here and now.
Many of you know that I am negative about abortion. I favor complete access to reliable birth control for all females as an abortion prevention measure. I favor adoption instead of abortion. I am reluctant to approve of any abortion once an embryo shows brain wave activity and sentience. So I am not some kind of radical pro-choice person. But this is different. A blastocyst does not merit our moral protection. A living, breathing, actual human does. That's what this comes down to. Make a stand here and now. Make a stand for hope. And make a stand against the most amoral, sociopathic president in American history.
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