Senate Agreement Reached on Stem Cell Debate
There is finally!!! agreement in the Senate to take up legislation to loosen federal restrictions on stem cell research. Under a plan proposed by Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Senate will debate three bills: one identical to H.R. 810, which allows federal funding on stem cells from embryos that would otherwise be discarded; another proposed by Senators Specter and Santorum which “encourages the National Institutes of Health to finance work that might someday allow scientists to produce cells equivalent to embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos”; the third, offered by Senator Brownback, would “make it a crime for anyone to trade in tissues from fetuses that were conceived and aborted expressly for research purposes.”
Each portion of the package would need sixty votes (which all of them are likely to attain without a problem). The three together will be debated for twelve hours on a date in July yet-to-be-determined. No amendments will be allowed. This was reportedly a very tough unanimous consent agreement to reach, as Senator Coburn withheld his consent through much of the negotiating process.
The president has threatened to veto the H.R. 810 portion of this package, and a spokesman reiterated that threat yesterday. Seems like an unwise move to me. Nonetheless, this agreement is excellent news, and has been a long time in coming.
14 Responses to “Senate Agreement Reached on Stem Cell Debate”
eggs..chickens..counting..before they hatch..bush in the mix…ahhhh yeah….
I’ll wait.
*fingers crossed*
Of course he will veto a bill that would help millions of Americans. He is frightened of what he does not understand.
Said by someone who doesn’t know how much of a mess goes into keeping the existing stem cell lines, or what the likely progress of this technology will cause.
For those who likewise like to hide in their ignorance…
Current line stem cells are reproduced in a very exact methodology. Simply throwing them into a petri dish won’t get you anywhere. What we’ve been doing is pretty much had to grow them inside living female mice. Extraction is not overwhelmingly survivable – labs go through dozens if not hundreds of these every day to continue their ‘research’.
And what can they do with these in a real life situation? Not much – there are two many genetic differences. In fact, scientists currently believe that they would require a near perfect genetic match to avoid potential complications or cancers. So, for the best possible treatment, you’d need a clone (and a resulting dead “pile of cells”) for every single person in the medical system.
You, no doubt, can put the results together, even if you aren’t willing to admit it yourself. Embryonic stem cell research will require significant loses of human life, not just (or even primarily) those of embryos. And that’s what this sort of research can eventually lead to.
And you blame others for fearing this, because they don’t understand? I think the opposite is more likely the case.
Nevermind that there’s been significantly more progress with the legal and significantly more moral adult stem cell lines than there has with either the federally funded original stem cell lines, or with other stem cell research funded privately. Nevermind the technology going into creating cells identical to embryonic stem cells without creating or destroying embryos.
A life for a life is an easy choice for you, since you can just legislate away what “life” is. I’m quite sure that doesn’t bug you. You’re not afraid at *all* when the government can define when you’re alive or not at will. The legislature has your best interests in mind, no doubt. I’m sure they’d *never* make decisions like that go wrong.
gattsuru
You are a liar.
And you are a twit.
I can back up the statements from my first post with information clearly available from many medical journals on the subject (or for those the above is too ‘highbrow’ for, the National Geographic article “The Stem Cell Divide” also has the basic information).
But, hey, why bother with the truth when your politics work for you?
Right. Go home political operative wannabe. You failed here.
Prove me wrong, or tell me why you think George Bush or Hillary Clinton are responsible enough to legislate when someone’s “Alive” or “not a person”.
You mean congress is about to actually do some good????
An embryo isn’t a life, it’s an unfertilized egg. Takes two to tango, but the fundies don’t do biology apparently.
The BibleThumpers want to tell you how/explain to concieve(sex for procreation, don’t enjoy), conception, abortion(no comment, baby in Houston) , health(HPV vaccine – cancer vs hedonistic sex) and death(Schiavo). Their rational is Old Testament and not science. But the really disgustng thing is the Republican’s corruption of government to dance with these “nut cases”(Sactorums fetus in a bottle) after Bush 41 lost because of bad leadership and not “kissing ass” with Pat “crazy leggs” Robertson. What happened to small government Republicans?
gattsuru
Your assertions are laughable beyond belief. You made they wild arse claim, YOU provide the “proof”.
Salmineo, I believe I did. Check the article, your local library should have it (it was the coverpage story, and a pretty notable picture).
Pyst, by definition, an embryo is
” 1. The fertilized egg of a vertebrate animal following cleavage.
2. In humans, the prefetal product of conception from implantation through the eighth week of development.”
It [i]must[/i] be fertilized, otherwise it’s just an egg (and also useless for stem cell research purposes, which require normal genetic structure and the ability to self-reproduce, neither of which an unfertilized egg can do).
Yeah Gattsuru…don’t sacrifice a single embryo… including the embryo of your own impregnated by violent rape daughter.
Bring the kid to full term, let her bear the pain of birth…let the mother love it, nurture it, invest in it, fill the child full of hope and expectations for 18 years….then send it off to some useless war and sacrifice it there and then brag about how righteous and patriotic you are!
Please don’t even think about it, don’t change your mind Gattsuru, not for a second!