Nancy Reagan urges Bush to reconsider

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Nancy Reagan urges Bush to reconsider
32
Mon, 05-10-2004 - 7:20am

She wants him to reverse his stand against stem cell research and is pictured with Michael J. Fox.  Is this what it is going to take to convince Bush that his ideological stance against this research is wrong?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3700015.stm








Nancy Reagan plea on stem cells








Ronald Reagan is suffering the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease
Former US First Lady Nancy Reagan has urged the Bush administration to support embryonic stem cell research.

Mrs Reagan said too much time had been wasted already discussing the issue.

She is said to believe the research could lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease, which has afflicted her husband, Ronald Reagan.

The Bush administration has blocked public funding of this type of research because of his party's ethical reservations about embryo research.

At a fundraising dinner for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Hollywood, Mrs Reagan said her husband was now in "a distant place where I can no longer reach him".

"I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this... We have lost so much time already. I just really can't bear to lose any more."

She said she believed stem cell research "may provide our scientists with many answers that for so long have been beyond our grasp".

It is thought to be the first time that Mrs Reagan has made a public speech on the issue, although her views have long been known.

Political debate

Mrs Reagan is the latest high-profile figure to criticise the Bush administration for its decision to limit funding for stem cell research.






Michael J. Fox and Nancy Reagan
Actor Michael J. Fox praised Mrs Reagan for "taking the issue out of politics"
Former Superman actor Christopher Reeve, left severely disabled following a riding accident, and actor Michael J. Fox, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, have both criticised the Bush administration for blocking research which they believe could improve their conditions.

Currently federal funds are not available for this type of work.

Mr Bush has told scientists he will not release US taxpayers' money for the production or investigation of new lines because it involves the destruction of human embryos.

Correspondents say that with the Bush administration and anti-abortion groups strongly opposed to stem cell research, Mrs Reagan's comments add a powerful conservative Republican voice to the debate.


 


Elaine

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 08-04-2004 - 3:35pm
I understand all that and I appeciate the needs and desires of those who need fertility help. I'm not even condoning it. But there is a moral issue to deal with when you have several frozen embryos who never get a chance at life. It is an issue that needs to be thought about and dealt with. How do you just throw away that life? Given the chance that embryo would be another son or daughter running around...and you'd love them just as much, given the chance.

I couldn't imagine not having children. If we would have had problems we would have researched everything possible too. In fact I don't know how I would deal with those methods if they were our only alternative. But it isn't a personal view that I have...life is life...oh and I don't have the perfect answer...just lamenting about the problem...

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Wed, 08-04-2004 - 6:08pm
"It is an issue that needs to be thought about and dealt with. How do you just throw away that life? Given the chance that embryo would be another son or daughter running around...and you'd love them just as much, given the chance. "

I think more about the sons and daughters running around seemingly invisible to their parents who didn't want them, and then about the people out there who die to have that chance and can't....that gets me lamenting about life...

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 12:30pm
"I think more about the sons and daughters running around seemingly invisible to their parents who didn't want them, and then about the people out there who die to have that chance and can't....that gets me lamenting about life..."

I agree but you think about them because they are right in front of you. The frozen ones are out of sight out of mind.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 12:44pm
"I agree but you think about them because they are right in front of you. The frozen ones are out of sight out of mind."

Ah, yes, and they are the ones that are alive, living and breathing now...in need of help. Let us think of them before we worry about frozen embryos not even physically ready to face the world as of yet.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 12:47pm
"Ah, yes, and they are the ones that are alive, living and breathing now...in need of help. Let us think of them before we worry about frozen embryos not even physically ready to face the world as of yet. "

Agreed...I just dont' want the frozen ones forgotten about or worse used as raw materials for experiments.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 1:00pm
"Agreed...I just dont' want the frozen ones forgotten about or worse used as raw materials for experiments."

I respect that view, though I don't share the concern. Much of that part of the debate would boil down to deciding the exact moment when life begins which I think we (being our society) will be hard pressed to ever have an agreement on.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 1:07pm
"I respect that view, though I don't share the concern. Much of that part of the debate would boil down to deciding the exact moment when life begins which I think we (being our society) will be hard pressed to ever have an agreement on."

I agree if we could definitively define legally, morally, and naturally when life begins the issue would be easy to solve. Of course getting those three view points to agree on anything would be dang near impossible.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 1:09pm
"Of course getting those three view points to agree on anything would be dang near impossible."

Isn't THAT the truth! ;)

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-16-2004
Wed, 08-18-2004 - 12:55pm
The frozen mutli-cell embryos aren't feeling pain, hunger or loneliness. Children do.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-29-2003
Wed, 08-18-2004 - 1:15pm
Just FYI, Specter may see some gaping difference between "nuclear transplantation" and "reproductive cloning," but there really is none. The nuclear transplant creates the oocyte, which then becomes an ovum, which then becomes an embryo, which then is harvested for stem cells in therapeutic cloning, or is left to develop into a clone of the host in reproductive cloning. Both start from the same spot.