| Commentary: Bainbridge: Distorting and Concealing Facts to Serve a Political Agenda |
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(From Life Matters - The Newsletter of the Respect Life Office of the Diocese of Rockford
Distorting and Concealing Facts to Serve a Political Agenda
While it has become all too obvious that many in the mainstream media (MSM) are either ignorant of the facts or unable to report without bias on many issues, their lack of accurate reporting regarding the controversy regarding "stem cell" research would be laughable if it weren't so serious.
Distortions and misinformation about embryonic stem cell research have been disseminated by the MSM for years. Their incompetent reporting and commentary has resulted in confusion and misunderstanding among many American citizens. It appears the MSM has become the propaganda machine for advocates of unethical research.
In 2001 President Bush announced that the Federal government would fund research on 62 cell lines from human embryos that had been destroyed before August 9, 2001. Cell lines obtained from embryos destroyed after that date would not be funded by taxpayers. In other words, while the research on human embryos would remain legal, such unethical research would not receive federal funding.
In July 2006 the Senate passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act designed to greatly expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research [ESCR] by allowing any "spare" or "left over" embryos from in vitro fertilization [IVF] procedures to be used. Fortunately, Bush vetoed the bill and the House sustained his veto.
Then, on February 9, 2009 President Obama issued an executive order reversing the Bush policy. As a result the federal government (taxpayers) will now fund research on any and all existing embryos and ones that will be "created" in fertility clinics in the future.
Interestingly, although the MSM ignored it, Obama also reversed Bush's executive Order 13435 issued on June 20, 2007 which directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to "conduct and support research" on stem cells "derived without creating a human embryo for research purposes or destroying, discarding, or subjecting to harm a human embryo or fetus." In other words, Obama is putting an end to federal funding on non-embryonic stem cell research.
Back to the basics To fully understand how the MSM causes confusion, we have to know the scientific facts.
Stem cells are those cells that are capable of becoming a different type of cell type in the body-they are "undifferentiated master cells" that can develop into differentiated tissues, such as bone, muscle, nerve, or skin."
What the MSM and many politicians (including the Obama administration) fail to acknowledge or explain properly is that there are two basic classifications of stem cells: embryonic and non-embryonic. Embryonic stem cells are found in human embryos.
Non-embryonic stem cells are found in umbilical cord blood, placentas, baby teeth, amniotic fluid, adult tissues (skin, bone marrow, fat, etc) and the newly discovered induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS).
To date, patients with 73 different adverse health conditions (including, but not limited to: Cancer, Juvenile Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Heart Damage, Parkinson's Disease, Spinal Cord Injury, and Stroke Damage) have benefitted from non-embryonic stem cells.
Not one condition has benefitted from embryonic stem cells and yet these are the only ones that Obama is interested in funding.
In a 2009 letter to Obama, Cardinal George wrote, "adult and cord blood stem cells are now known to have great versatility, and are increasingly being used to reverse serious illnesses and even help rebuild damaged organs. To divert scarce funds away from these promising avenues for research and treatment toward the avenue that is most morally controversial as well as most medically speculative would be a sad victory of politics over science."
Former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, remarked, "The best that can be said about embryonic stem cell research is that it is scientific exploration into the potential benefits of killing human beings."
Above his pay grade One would expect that when someone as powerful as the President of the United States issues an order about the destruction of human embryos, he would at least understand the basics of what he is actually doing.
During the recent political campaign, then-Presidential candidate Obama claimed that knowing when life begins was "above my pay grade." There is no way he didn't know life begins at fertilization-but publicly admitting it would be problematic in justifying his extreme anti-life political agenda. How could he support experimenting on human embryos if he admits they are tiny human beings instead of "balls of cells"?
When announcing he was reversing the Bush policy on ESCR, Obama stated his executive order was "about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda- and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology." Yet he and the MSM distort and conceal data on a regular basis to serve their political agendas.
Clinton distorts, Gupta conceals Even Former President Clinton-appearing on the Larry King Live show two days after Obama's executive order-either does not understand basic biology or he, too, "distorted or concealed" scientific data "to serve a political agenda." Filling in for King, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent (a neurosurgeon who Obama wanted as his Surgeon General) began the conversation by describing Clinton "as someone who studied this [embryonic stem cell research]."
One would assume if Clinton had studied ESCR he certainly would know that embryos come into being as a result of fertilization. Instead he demonstrates he has no idea what an embryo is-or, he wants the general public to think it is something it is not. Clinton says Obama "has apparently decided to leave to the relevant professional committees the definition of which frozen embryos are basically going to be discarded, because they're not going to be fertilized." Read that again. Clinton is saying that embryos have not been fertilized. Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue.
But later on in the interview he says it again: "I believe the American people believe it's a pro-life decision to use an embryo that's frozen and never going to be fertilized for embryonic stem cell research." That's twice. Then he does it again: "any of the embryos that are used clearly have been placed beyond the pale of being fertilized before their use." Unbelievably, he does it two more times: "There are a large number of embryos that we know are never going to be fertilized" and then, "they're not going to fool with any embryos where there's any possibility, even if it's somewhat remote, that they could be fertilized and become human beings."
Let's get it right: science has long recognized that not only are embryos already fertilized, they are human beings! To deny that is to deny scientific facts.
What is shocking is that Dr. Gupta did nothing to correct Clinton's glaring nonsense. As a physician, he should be ashamed of himself for allowing Clinton to distort scientific data to serve a political agenda. But then, again, Gupta is an Obama supporter so I guess we shouldn't be surprised that he chose to conceal the truth.
Is stem cell research moral? In order to know if stem cell research is moral, we must know which type of stem cell research is in question.
The 2008 encyclical, Dignitas Personae, explains the immorality of ESCR: "The obtaining of stem cells from a living human embryo . . . invariably causes the death of the embryo and is consequently gravely illicit: ‘research, in such cases, irrespective of efficacious therapeutic results, is not truly at the service of humanity.'" [51]
Dignitas Personae confirms that non-embryonic stem cell research is moral: "The research initiatives involving the use of adult stem cells, since they do not present ethical problems, should be encouraged and supported." [53]
As taxpayers, we should not be forced to pay for unethical/immoral research.
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