Isn't it outrageous to consult a person like George W. Bush on anything? This RETARD is connected tp Falwell, Robertson and Dobson. These guys sit back in the comfort of their own evil snickering at the misery they are causing. Frankly, I am not at the moment ready to express an opinion. But this I know, ANYONE WHO CONSULTS GEORGE W. BUSH ON ANYTHING is not up to par himself!

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The stem cell cures promised should be highly profitable. Are the pharmaceutical companies conducting research in countries that don't have strict laws against it?

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"The Fetus Farming Prohibition Act would ban the development of embryos solely for use in research"

Hmm, so to the Christian conservatives, an embryo is a fetus. We already know from previous lessons from the right that a fetus is a child. And in Texas, anyway, children are executed as adults. And they're all so precious, too!

I guess an acorn is an oak tree too. As an adult, I guess I qualify as a cadaver.

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The religious right's objection to stem cell research is based on the strange notion that a soul is magically inserted into a human egg at the moment of conception.

This bizarre idea is straight out of the Bronze Age, yet it endures, causing untold suffering when transformed into modern political policies.

Increasingly, religious groups are harming the public with their primitive ideas on health issues. Consider their objections to stem cell research, the morning-after contraceptive pill, realistic sex education and other programs.

Adding insult to injury in the USA: We Americans are forced to subsidize religious groups through the generous tax breaks granted in federal, state and local tax codes.

We should demand an end to all those tax breaks, as well as all government programs based on religion (and there are many such "faith-based" efforts). Let them pay their own way!

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If Bush vetoes a good progressive stem cell bill then we the people need to veto the Bush by demanding our Congress impeach the whole Cheney gang for numerous crimes and misdemeanors.

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For all of the right wing Bible thumpers who are opposed to stem cell research because it destroys life and to them "all life is precious", I have one question. If you truly believe that, why the hell aren't you out protesting the killing in Iraq?

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Let me see if I got this right. If a human soul is inserted at the time of conception, then the blastocyst is actually a human child. If the family decides to discard unused ‘children’ isn’t this murder according to this line of thought? We then should expect huge lines in the courts for murder one for each blastocyst destroyed which means the death penalty for both ‘parents’. So, in-vetro is actually creating ‘children’ who should be protected at any cost, but the actual act of in-vetro is actually fetal farming in disguise due to excess eggs harvested and fertilized.

What about the possibility of using your own mature stem cells to grow new body parts, isn’t this a form of cannibalism according to this line of thought?

What about medications created that use recombinant DNA techniques. Aren’t these also playing with ‘life’?

Stem cell research is necessary for life for many. As a type 1 diabetic from medical complications and not family history, I have stored cord blood given willingly by my daughter from the births of my grandchildren and one of them is a match. I’m waiting and hoping for a cure. I know which grandchild it is, but I won’t share this info with her or them, so to me, there is no difference between them in my love for them as individuals.

Do you think that there will be cures soon? Not hardly! Think of the money it takes to keep someone alive that needs stem cells. For me, it’s a $7,000.00 insulin pump every 4 years, plus, $1,200.00 a month for pump supplies, other necessary medications to head off the damage from type 1 diabetes, and my favorites; $90.00 per bottle of insulin (which holds only 300 ml per vial) and $1.25 per blood test strip ( from 4-8 per day, if having problems you use more) when the blood sugar meters are almost free.

Those that do not need stem cell research are the ones making decisions for the rest of us that are slowly dying while waiting. Isn’t this cruel and in-human punishment?

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Here's the entire crux that exposes the hypocrisy of the Christianist Right for what it is:

In every way, shape, and form, they are trying desperately to turn the clock back, not to the 1940's, but actually to Hollywood's depiction of America in the 1940's, which really was the pre-1920's sexual revolution America of the 1890's.

So that's all well and good. Things WERE nicer then. But when it comes to ideas of medicine, they want their cake and be able to eat it too. They want to use all of today's technological and medical advances to "save life" from the "moment of conception" on, and even after brain death, waiting for vegetables whose souls have long ago left their body, to miraculously come back from beyond, years or even decades later!

But let's ask ourselves a simple question: When was life considered to have begun in 1890?

How about 1940? 1960?

When was this absurd notion that human life NO LONGER BEGINS AT BIRTH but begins earlier conceived (pun intended) in the first place? And by what nations? And by what Church? And for what reason, REALLY? Could it really be that the Catholic Church in 1960 was petrified about losing millions of future Catholics and all the money they'd generate because of the Pill? Could it really have been merely about money? About losing what they saw as their PROPERTY?

You can bet your LIFE (from birth!) on it.

How about death? When did death officially occur in 1890? In 1940? In 1960?

It is blatantly unfair and arbitrary to use today's technological medical advances to now state that "Life begins at conception" and "Life ends when we are no longer able to keep a vegetable body alive."

We can keep human bodies alive indefinitely. THAT IS NOT LIFE. (Insert horror picture here of a 400 year old body, alive in a jar, with bubbles.)

Neither is a SPERM CELL, or OVUM, or an EMBRYO, human life. Some would argue that a full-term FETUS is not human life, NOT JUST YET. So it was for thousands of years of human civilization.

I submit, as in the past, human life should legally, medically, and spiritually begin when a fetus pops out of its mothers' body, no longer a dependent parasitic growth, and ENTERS OUR WORLD, separate and apart from the Mother.

That's when life began in 1890, that's when life began in 1940, that's when life began in 1960 before the Catholic Church weighed in, and that's when we all need to agree legally that's when life begins, NOW.

The Christianist Right cannot have it both ways; they cannot turn our clocks back to 1960 (before the pill), turn our mores back to 1960 (before sonograms), and turn our technology back to 1960 (banning or refusing to dispense certain medications) without ALSO TURNING THE MEDICAL DEFINITION OF LIFE BACK TO 1960 (Life begins at birth; life ends at brain death.)

Yes, one could argue abortion didn't exist in 1890 (you'd be wrong); one could argue it didn't exist in 1940 (you'd be wrong); one could argue it didn't exist in 1960, until Roe vs. Wade, but you'd also still be dead wrong.

Abortion existed long before Roe vs. Wade; Roe vs. Wade merely made it safer than it had been when it was illegal and underground.

Did Roe Vs. Wade increase abortion? Yes. Of course. So?

Here's the interesting premise. How does a Christianist absolutely know, for sure, without a doubt, that God Himself had no provision whatsoever for potential life that didn't make it into the world, to not be given a second, third, or as many chances as it took for that soul to be born, AT A SUCCESSFUL BIRTH, and enter the world?

(continued to next post)

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It's not just the myriad medical cures which could result from SCR (Cancer, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Axonal Brain Injury, etc.), but from a purely commercial standpoint, the development of exportable flexible technology that will be worth billions in the near future.

The scientists in Singapore are ahead of SCR researchers in the US. At a time when Amerika is becoming a tired lonely old dinasaur. doesn't it at least make some sense to try to achieve a competitive proficiency in this emerging science field....like we once did with computer technology in the 70s?

God knows, we don't produce anything else in this country(except MBAs and "consultants")!

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It comes as no surprise that a proponent of embryonic stem cell research and human cloning, Dr. William Neaves, wrote a letter criticizing Dr. David Prentice, a former biology professor at Indiana State University, for saying that the published literature shows 65 diseases in humans have been treated with adult stem cells. What's more disheartening, the journal Science published it without giving Dr. Prentice a chance to respond, a usual practice for scientific journals. Even worse, Science does not disclose Dr. Neaves's expenditure of $10 million to advance Missouri's ballot initiative advancing embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. In the hit piece, Dr. Neaves falsely accuses Dr. Prentice of claiming that adult stem cells are being regularly used as FDA-approved treatments in the United States. While some treatments have been FDA approved others listed by Dr. Prentice, such as Parkinson's and spinal cord injury, occurred overseas and would not involve the FDA. In fact Prentice has advocated that the FDA move forward to approve more therapies for use and wants more funding for adult stem cell research to make therapies more available and to move forward with more human trials.One wonders based on his own criteria, how Dr. Neaves knows embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos are going to treat people, when not a single disease has been treated by this method in any trial. The good news is that the list is now at 72 diseases that have been treated in humans with adult stem cells. For more on this, see http://www.lifenews.com/bio1630.html.

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Hey, do you know why Fundamentalists Christains don't make love standing up?......they're afraid it'll lead to Dancing!

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We all know what's going to happen. The bill will pass in the house, and then it will be vetoed. We've known this for years.
So this story doesn't accomplish anything.

We might as well just accept the fact that we'll have to wait until 2008 for real progress to begin.

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I'm sure that the good conservative Christian citizens of America who support their Idiot Boy president and his antiscientific beliefs won't be hypocrites and partake of stem cell therapy when the civilized world finally makes it available.

Of course they will.

What I really hope is that it was not offered to them at any price, just to help them stay true to their beautiful vision of how the universe works. Let them die for their beliefs since they are so happy to let others die waiting for live saving treatment that they believe comes from the main Evildoer.

Good thinking!

Doesn't that just warm the cockles of your heart?

Can't you just feel the presence of the divine and the supernatural working through these people? They are so in tune with the cosmos. How can I have what they have? Where do I go to obtain that kind of wisdom and love?

That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it? I see how being a Christian makes one a better and happier person, gives one the victory over the base emotions of the flesh, and fills one with the love, joy and power of the Spirit, then want that for myself, too, right?

It's my opinion that although there are many good Christians, (and I apologize for offending them now, but I do not know how to make my larger point without so doing) they bring that goodness to their religion, not the other way around. There's a big difference between telling people to be good and to not lie or steal, and teaching by example. The latter actually works for good or ill, and the church and clergy's example is loathsome, not to mention their political advice to vote twice for the worst president ever.

How does one come to the conclusion that these people have some secret knowledge or truth, or a direct line to wisdom?

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You would think that Big Pharma would have major cash tied up in the business of "the next big thing", using money to encourage medical breakthroughs and such. It is so much darker and grim than that though. Remember this is a culture of death; these ghouls thrive on suffering, punishment, and pain.
--- The pharmaceutical companies do whatever they can to stop anything that has any possibility of curing illness or disease.
It's sad but true.

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So your mentally challenged "president" has used his...veto...to make sure that your scientists cannot work in the US to cure diseases like Parkinsons or whatever else might be curable using stemcell research.

SO...does this mean Australia is now not allowed to either because we have a "free"-trade agreeement with the US?

(Should we get in early and just start teaching Creationism now?)

Did you SEE that smarmy little schmuck on the TV? Surrounded by other smarmy gits in suits with babies and children bouncing away on their (well-worn) knees????

"SEE?! These children would never have existed (NOT ONE OF THEM) if we had allowed stem cell research!"

WTF????

Stem cell research hopefuls would only use the cells couples want anymore. WHY is flushing them down the toilet any better than using them for research?

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