200th post
 

He announced the veto in a room full of babies? I thought that was an Onion article at first...
 

I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my co-worker's daughter as I just did a moment ago. She just couldn't understand why the President would be vetoeing funding for stem cells. "Is grandma gonna die?" she asked pitifully.

Her mother sat down with her on the lounge sofa and (as calmly as she could) tried to explain to her why the President prevented federal funding to embryo-destroying stem cell research. "And yes, even your Grandma is going to die", she was forced to say.



(inspired/plagiarized from CheChe, intrepid DailyKos commenter. http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/5/11/125132/743/46)
 

I thought that was an Onion article at first...

ha yeah no kidding

In many ways, President Bush, rather than "saving lives", is sending more and more humans to their deaths with this veto.

yeah i don't see how people can support a decision to continue blocking a hugely promising line of research that has the potential to provide major advances in the treatment of so many diseases. he's crushing the hopes of real, live human beings...in the name of frozen fertilized eggs?!?!...a few frozen cells that will remain in biological limbo for years and eventually be discarded?!! (aside: do couples going to fertility clinics regard these surplus fertilized eggs as their own children or even as human beings? i highly doubt most of them do.)
 

Well shucks, I guess those scientists will just have to give up entirely and go become pig farmers, especially as they can't go work in Belgium because it's the same way all over Europe too. It must be too hard to look for private funding, or do something vaguely scientific or intelligent like research alternatives. It's not worth it! The world is so damn cruel!
 

Sorry, I'll dial the "snark" down a few points. As for the Onion, I'm sure they'll have something at some point. I'm surprised they haven't already, unless I missed it.
 

yeah god knows if there's anyone who gets a little overzealous when posting to wustlog it's me...
 

It's absolutely horrible that he would do this, but then again, it's certainly in his own interests to do so. This is an important issue for the 30% of Americans who defy all of their brain's efforts to hate Bush. Those affected by it, the blastocyst-Americans, are a very powerful lobby for this administration. Second perhaps only to people in vegetative states.

This really makes me wonder why we decided that a presidential term should be 4 fucking whole years. I can't put up with 2 more years of this....
 

bush tries to equate these embryos with human beings. imagine for a moment that my wife and i (pending) go to a fertility clinic (unlikely) to have lots and lots of little embryos made to be implanted. that's normal, i.e. it's done every day, right? we make 15 embryos and implant a few and maybe one or a group of two or three actually "works". now the rest of those...what to do with them?! OMG THEY'RE HUMAN LIVES! "THESE EMBRYOS ARE NOT SPARE PARTS!" clearly since we respect them as human beings we'll freeze them at minus 196 degrees C, indefinitely, to be disposed of at a later date, with a 1 in many thousands chance of one of them being adopted and standing next to bush at his next mindless publicity stunt. this is the status quo.

now imagine we have 15 living breathing SENTIENT human beings born instead of just making 15 embryos. these little children have, according to bush, the same value as the embryos made above. but clearly we can't just take a few that look like they'll "work" and put the rest in liquid nitrogen for years on end!!! bottom line: equating human lives with cells that have the potential to someday become human lives is utter nonsense. blocking science that salvages and makes use of waste embryos is completely backwards...but that's our president for ya!
 

There are many important points here, but one is Bush isn't "blocking" this research, per se. It isn't illegal. The gummint just isn't going to pay for it anymore, and by extension you aren't paying for it anymore. Putting all your eggs in one stem cell basket isn't going to get anyone anywhere except angry. There are other viable avenues of research without the ethical concerns and Bush would have been happy to fund these (umbilical, adult, etc.), which thus far has a record of actually doing something in real actual human clinical trials, as opposed to embryonic stem cells which are still just potentially useful. It should also be noted that Bush is the first president to provide any sort of gummint funding for embryonic stem-cell research at all (so...Clinton doomed sick people to painful deaths?), he's just not going to anymore.
 

Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is good
Every sperm is wanted, in our neighborhoooood.

C'mon everyone, you know the words!!
 

yeah I thought it was understood that we're talking about whether or not bush will allow govt funds. he's "blocking" the use of government funds, yes, but these funds are a large part of what research can be done in the US today. without NIH and NCI grants, the lab i'm in at M. D. Anderson, for example, wouldn't be able to afford to stay in business. sure there are smaller grants from pharmaceutical companies or from massive academic centers, but these private funds alone are often simply not enough to sustain a lab's research
 

ps - thanks lee for keeping things light :D
 

I think the real issue is that Bush is blocking the construction of new Shakey's Pizzas.
 

nnoooooooo!!
 

Stem cells for burn victims are overrated. As a former skin-graft patient, I can testify that all you need is a couple of weeks, a little determination and a whole lotta good old fashioned skin-growing gumption.