Bush opposes using embryos for research

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Bush opposes using embryos for research
6
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 10:51am

I just hope that no one they love ever has to suffer from Alzheimer's, or Pres. & Mrs. Bush just might have a different take on this issue.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Laura%20Bush%20Stem%20Cells


Wednesday, June 9, 2004 · Last updated 5:59 a.m. PT


Bush opposes using embryos for research


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


SEA ISLAND, Ga. -- Ronald Reagan's death from complications of Alzheimer's disease has not changed President Bush's stand against using embryos for stem cell research, Laura Bush said Wednesday.


Former first lady Nancy Reagan and others believe the use of stem cells from embryos could lead to cures for such illnesses as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Bush's executive order in August 2001, however, limited federal research funding for stem cell research to 78 embryonic stem cell lines then in existence.


"We need to balance the interest in science with moral issues," Mrs. Bush said on NBC's "Today" show, adding that there's going to be an increasing number of people suffering from the disease as the baby boom population ages.


Stem cells can be taken from days-old human embryos and then grown in a laboratory into lines or colonies. Embryos are destroyed when the cells are extracted, a process opposed by some people who link it to abortion.


In a letter to the president the day before Reagan died, 58 senators asked Bush to relax federal restrictions. The letter said only 19 of those lines are now available to researchers and those available are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, making their use for humans uncertain.


"We have to be really careful between what we want to do for science and what we should do ethically and the stem cell issue is certainly one of those issues that we need to treat very carefully," Mrs. Bush said on "The Early Show" on CBS.


On ABC's "Good Morning America," Mrs. Bush referred to alternatives to "abusing embryos" in research. "There are stem cell embryos ready that people can use for research, but it's a very delicate line," she said.


Mrs. Bush is with the president in Sea Island, Ga., for an economic summit of the eight largest industrial nations.

cl-nwtreehugger


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 12:09pm
Religious Group Endorses Human Embryo Research.
http://www.mcjonline.com/news/01a/20010314e.shtml

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 12:37pm
<>

People of character base their moral stances on their beliefs and live them.

Are you aware of the promising research being done with adult stem cells?

http://www.stemcellresearch.org/stemcellreport/index.html

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-05-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 1:50pm

People of character base their moral stances on their beliefs and live them.


I just wish that I didn't have to live (and die) by Bush's beliefs and morals.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 2:30pm

While I am no scientist and I don't know which will end up being better (especially since they don't seem to either), but I want them to be able to utilize both.


My thoughts exactly.

cl-nwtreehugger


Community Leader:


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 2:41pm

People of character base their moral stances on their beliefs and live them.


How nice.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 5:14pm
<>

I totally agree. Rigid moral beliefs often tend to be mean-spirited, lacking the empathy that the religion advocates.