If this National Review report is true, the GOP platform calls for making illegal all forms of embryonic stem cell research, even privately financed research. Definitely a story to watch.
UPDATE: Still can't find the full text of the platform but here is what the Washington Post reports: "In one controversial vote, the platform committee approved a total ban on embryonic stem cell research."
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For some reason, I don't actually get an article loading when I follow that link.
Anyway, you don't really mean that anyway do you? Surely it's about *human* embryonic stem cell research? 'Cause we would sorely miss transgenic mouse technology.
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Embryonic Stem cell research is the same as harvesting body parts. If as a society, we find harvesting stem cells from a fetus an acceptable procedure, then why not harvest the liver, kidneys, skin, bone and other parts? Perhaps we can evacuate the fetus's brain prior to birth and then market the body parts. By some estimation, such a body could be monetized in excess of $240,000 per developed fetus. While we are considering this, perhaps we can follow China's lead and start harvesting executed prisoner organs. Going one step further, perhaps we can consider the value of each person to society and perhaps those individuals deemed substantially less valuable than others can be required to "give parts" for the embetterment of society. Should we really concern ourselves with the notion that every person is equal under the law and that each person has their own goals and aspirations, desires and pains? Does that curious notion that "All people are created equal" have any place in our modern society?
Search the page for "Going Out With a Bang" if you don't have time to wade through the river of right-wing crap. "Pro-life" Luddite rats gnawing away at rationality as usual.
I watch a bit of the platform committee debating this on CSPAN (couldn't stomach it for long). One member was pushing pretty hard for a 'therapeutic research' exception, and others were pushing back in a fairly passive aggressive manner.
Anyone have the intestinal fortitude to look up the final platform wording?
The more you tighten your ban on stem cell research, the more independents will slip through your fingers.
After some difficult digging, I managed to find this draft of the 2008 Platform. It was last updated on Monday Aug 25, so it likely doesn't include any of the updates made this week. Here is the stem cell research section:
Funding Medical Research
We support federal investment in basic and applied biomedical research. This commitment will maintain America's global competitiveness, advance innovative science that can lead to medical breakthroughs, and turn the tide against diseases affecting millions of Americans' diseases that account for the majority of our health care costs. The United States leads in this research, as evidenced by our growing biotechnology industry, but foreign competition is increasing. One way government can help preserve the promise of American innovation is to ensure that our intellectual property laws remain robust.
Federal research dollars should be spent as though lives are at stake because, in fact, they are. Research protocols must consider the special needs of formerly neglected groups if we are to make significant progress against breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, and other killers.
Taxpayer-funded medical research must be based on sound science, with a focus on both prevention and treatment, and in accordance with the humane ethics of the Hippocratic Oath. In that regard, we call for a major expansion of support for the stem-cell research that now shows amazing promise and offers the greatest hope for scores of diseases with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells without the unethical destruction of embryonic human life. We call for a ban on human cloning, the creation of human embryos for research purposes.
Its too bad that they got their science so obviously wrong, it wasn't even very fun pointing out their mistaken belief that "adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells" offer the "greatest hope", when they actually have the most limited applications and have had the least progress toward medical applications in recent years. I'll leave it to the rest of you to pick it apart more.