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At the 18 September head-to-head between health advisors from the McCain and Obama campaign that Scientists and Engineers for America hosted at George Washington University, a question on in vitro fertilization completely stumped McCain health advisor Jay Khosla. The Obama campaign surrogate, Dora Hughes, MPH, MD answered it without hesitation.
Frankly, the inability to answer this simple question on a widely used assisted reproductive technology or clarify whether McCain will once and for all lift Bush's ban on use of federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research is deeply disturbing. Is it pandering to the religious right, an innocent flub or an indication of intentions to tighten restrictions on assisted reproductive technologies? This is hardly "gotcha journalism." The inability to answer is scary.
The moderator, Julie Rovner from NPR, was taking questions from the audience and by email, here is the IVF question...
"Senator McCain has stated that human life begins at the moment of conception. This would have many implications for scientific research and health policy. Would Senator McCain ban in vitro fertilization, a procedure where most fertilized eggs are destroyed; and if not, why not?
The question itself hinges upon the definition of "conception," there are two. Generally, the religious right defines conception as fertilization of an embryo (regardless of the means of delivery). The medical definition requires implantation of the embryo. The easy answer would have been "Of course not. Senator McCain has no intention of banning IVF. That's preposterous" Mr. Khosla said he would be willing to answer this question off line. I wonder what his answer would be with the cameras off. Watch the whole forum here.
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Just last night I read part of Daniel Radosh's book "Rapture Ready" that discusses the extreme fundamentalist view that IVF produces 'products' rather than children as well as their view that discarding unused eggs = abortion.
He was disgusted by their attitude and so am I. I recommend his book highly.
Posted by: Rob Jase | October 6, 2008 3:48 PM
thanks good blog and post
Posted by: newkon | October 6, 2008 3:52 PM
Unbelievable. Not only can he not unequivocally say that McCain would be OK with IVF. He also brings up the straw man argument of fetal farming.
Posted by: Alric | October 6, 2008 4:00 PM
Michael - a point of correction: I think you are confusing the notions of conception and pregnancy. Conception occurs at fertilization. Pregnancy, on the other hand, is generally viewed by medical sorts as occurring at implantation.
Just sayin'...
Posted by: bobkoepp | October 6, 2008 5:00 PM