I think this might be the first President ever to actually try for negative approval ratings. I cannot believe the President actually vetoed this bill with a claim of “saving human lives” (yeah right, let’s see what Iraq has to say about that) and made a press announcement after happily bringing along tons of toddlers and children (they are the result of discarded embryos, known as ’snowflakes’) in the press room to back him up. As a brother to a girl with Rett Syndrome, this news is completely saddening. There is a reason they are called stem cells. They are not human beings yet. They are cells. These are not five-month-old fetuses. These are embryonic stem cells taken from five-day-old blastocysts. This research held the most promise in solving some of the biggest problems in medicine.

There were lots of families, people with disabilities, politicians, and researchers hoping and praying that stem cell research would get enough funding to see the light of cures for some of the world’s most prevalent diseases and disabilities.

To really show you the lack of intelligence that a few Republicans (truly making fools out of themselves in Congress — i.e. Sen. Ted “the internet is not a dump truck” Stevens, Sen. Arlen “we need to wiretap everyone” Specter) have about stem cell research, here’s a good article from Wired: “Congress’ Top 10 Stem Cell Flubs”. Wired particularly reams them in this quote:

“As we all know, on Aug. 9, 2001, President Bush laid out his principles and put in place a policy, which I supported, that for the first time allowed federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.” — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)

Not true. President Clinton put in place the first policy (.pdf) to allow federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research. Bush halted this policy upon entering the White House and didn’t take up the subject again until 2001.

This bill has been passed by Congress and passed by the American public. What have you done Mr. Bush?

 

The Daily Show on Stem Cell Research:

Michael J. Fox speaks out on the veto. Very sad..