Bush, the Cardinal and stem cells

The ultra right US House of Representatives has voted to lift some restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and the Senate will likely follow suit, maybe as soon as today (New Scientist). The bill effectively zeroes out a five year ban on federal financing of stem cell research by allowing researchers to use federal grants to use embryonic stem cells dervied from surplus embryos produced by in vitro fertilization that would otherwise be destroyed.

Currently it is very difficult for academic researchers to do any embryonic stem cell research because the only allowed cell lines (derived prior to August 9, 2001) are contaminated. While private funds can be used, it is impractical in the university setting as federal grants pay for facility overhead (lights, libraries, security, power, etc.) and thus entirely separate facilities with no comingling of overhead dollars would be required.

President Bush is said to be prepared to use the first veto of his presidency on this bill, although he has threatened to veto bills before and he never does (so much for making credible threats). If he does, he will be saying anyone but his hard right religious base can go to hell. Which is exactly what Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo is saying:

Head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, Trujillo is the most senior Catholic official so far to proclaim on the morality of stem cell research. "Destroying human embryos is equivalent to an abortion," he said in an interview in the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana on 2 July. "Excommunication will be applied to the women, doctors and researchers who eliminate embryos [and to the] politicians that approve the law." (New Scientist)

The Cardinal must be showing early dementia. Maybe stem cell research can help him.

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The Cardinal wants to excommunicate the people who want to work with the stem cells slated for destruction.

I wonder what he would do if we turned all the frozen ivf embryos (slated for destruction) over to him.

Let me guess, offer sainthood to christian women who are willing to develop the embryos.

By Trina Bashore (not verified) on 18 Jul 2006 #permalink

Indeed. Every zygote is sacred. You know, even though there are already 6.5 billion fully developed ones on this planet ...

One cannot ascribe value to a human being by attaching conditions. Whether there are billions or just one, each individual has that unique spark called "life". That inherent value remains unaffected by prevailing circumstances. ". . . that all men ARE created equal". Self evident.

By Research Scientist (not verified) on 18 Jul 2006 #permalink

I must be slowly digging my way to hell every month I let an egg drop without fertilizing it. I mean, I just sit around letting it get sloughed away by my disappointed uterus. If I were really worth a god-damn I would be out there right now trying to get laid. Oh, wait, I have to get married first, then I'm supposed to get pregnant. All these rules.

Okay, I know an egg is not quite an embro. The thing I want to know is where will they stop? Or maybe more importantly, when?

So when medical cures derived from stem-cell research are developed a few years from now, I assume the church will excommunicate those who choose treatment over sickness and death. Right? I mean, the clergy (or G. W. Bush, for that matter) have never been hypocrites before have they?

I make sure all my eggs are safe. They get blocked from being flushed by a tubal ligation I had a year after my only child was born.
That idiot cardinal will continue to spew his stupidity until one of his family or himself need the medical cures made possible by stem cell research. As long as he is safe from any disease that could be cured by it, he will continue to be against it.

By G in INdiana (not verified) on 19 Jul 2006 #permalink

Given that the Catholic Church is guilty of the most massive child molestation scandal in history, plus a conspiracy to prevent offenders from being brought to justice in the courts, IMHO they have lost all right to speak to any issue related to sexual morality. They should be doing silent penance on those issues for perhaps 400 years.

Interesting that there is no word about excommunicating the males whose sperm fertilized the eggs that turned into those frozen blastocysts. Bloody hypocritical bastards.

So yes, give the Pope all those frozen blastocysts, and excommunicate anyone who has medical treatments derived from stem cell research.

Someone ought to publish the Pope's postal address at the Vatican, so all those frozen bits can be sent along to him, properly shipped in a cryogenic storage container.

Where the Catholic Church is entitled to produce as many christian yes-sayer souls as possible, against Islam and other 'movements', and, like in the Phillipines, not caring any damn on their deplorable circumstances of living, by witholding them condoms and now threatening with this ban, they take the right to protect unborn life for their own ends. So some seem to be more entitled to ban people working to realize earthly happiness than others, isn't it?

Please pick up a copy of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" to educate yourself about "excommuniction" and the Church's teaching on the moral handling of embryos. Cardinal Trujillo is stating publicly TO CATHOLICS that there are serious spiritual consequences for the Catholics who chose to experiment on human embryos, or produce embryos for experimentation.

As non-Catholics his statements should not interest you, unless you truly believe there is a Catholic conspiracy, driven by the Papacy, to take over the U.S. Government. When you speak like this you put yourselves in the same class as the "Know Nothings" who threw the Papal stone for the Washington Monument into the Potomac.

I expect so much more from you than the above posts.

By LibraryLady (not verified) on 21 Jul 2006 #permalink

LL: Not as simple as that. When you extend this threat -- which to me is nothing but to many sincere doctors and nurses is important -- to anyone and everyone who has anything to do with this, for example, those involved in therapy, then you are doing things that affect us all. In addition, the same threat was made to John Kerry. That also affected us all. When the threat is limited to stem cells and abortion but similar church strictures on war and capital punishment are not handled the same way, then there is deep moral problem with the church hierarchy. I don't expect more from them and they don't deliver.