More On Stem Cell

Admittedly, I had not looked much into the issue of stem cell research when this debate originally began to surface a few years ago. Regarding this issue, I briefly looked over the two sides of the argument and went with my default position of being conservative and didn't think much more about it. With the recent developments I've been reading a little bit more about the issue and have found it just riveting. Really.

I found this article this morning via Powerline that will soon be appearing in Commentary magazine. A point man from the Bush administration wrote this article about how Bush's policy on stem cell research was forumlated. It really is just fascinating - please read it. The writer gives a clear picture of the months of deliberation that went into the policy formulation. Reading this article reaffirms my personal stance on the necessity of electing officials who will seriously consider the ethical ramifications of the policies that they adopt. I really think it is just so vital to have a president that embraces religion if only because that person will then operate from a perspective that seriously weighs the moral stances of the various faiths that he is representing. It's not enough that the person respect religion, but practices it himself so as to really appreciate the ethical weight that accompanies his decisions. As time goes on it has become more and more clear to me that President Bush has been a stalwart in crafting political policies that reflect these kinds of considerations.

Regarding the issue, the foremost stem-cell researcher said, "If human embryonic stem-cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough.” One point of argument that I had previously failed to fully grasp with this issue was just how much our eventual position reflects our respect for life. That may be something that you've already considered, but have you really thought about that in depth? I consider myself pretty informed with these issues, but this was one thing that I still feel like I failed to fully appreciate.

An incident that occurred between the President and a spokesperson for National Right To Life illustrates the President's commitment to doing what was right, not necessarily popular:

When a member of the National Right to Life delegation took out a public-opinion poll to bolster his claim that opposition to stem-cell research would be a winning issue politically, Bush swatted the paper away and replied with uncommon sharpness: “This is too important an issue to take polls about. I am going to decide this based on what I believe is right.”

From a conversation in the oval office between the President and bioethicists, the President said:

I must confess I am wrestling with a difficult decision. It’s a difficult issue for me. On one hand, it offers so much hope; on the other, so much despair. I worry about a culture that devalues life. I think my job is to encourage respect for life. On the other hand, I believe technologies and science will help solve many medical problems, and I have great hope for cures.

And one last excerpt from the article:

A few days later, I brought into the Oval Office my copy of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 anti-utopian novel, and as I read passages aloud imagining a future in which humans would be bred in hatcheries, a chill came over the room.“We’re tinkering with the boundaries of life here,” Bush said when I finished. “We’re on the edge of a cliff. And if we take a step off the cliff, there’s no going back. Perhaps we should only take one step at a time.”

Read the article.