The president has sneaked off, with no public debate and no legislative support in this country, to the UN in an attempt to get embryonic stem cell research banned in the entire world.
Yes, he's trying to ban embryonic stem cell research worldwide:
The Bush administration is spearheading a campaign at the United Nations for a global treaty banning embryonic stem cell research and all forms of human cloning.
Critics fear the U.S. move might undermine efforts to find cures for such afflictions as cancer, diabetes and spinal cord damage.
Nearly 130 nations - including such close U.S. allies as Britain, Japan and India - say that each nation should be allowed to decide for itself whether to regulate therapeutic cloning.
"No country has the right to seek to impose on the rest of the world a ban on therapeutic cloning, when its own legislature won't impose the ban nationally," said British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry. [Philadelphia Inquirer 10/24/04 free sign-up] (Story links open in new windows)
I appreciate his religious/ethical position on this, but it does not represent that of all Americans.
Rather than sneaking off as he has done, the issue should be discussed publicly and honestly. If that had been done, it is likely that the majority of Americans would not have supported his move.
Just another sign that this administration seems to think their ends justify any means, democracy be damned.
Laura Bush has weighed in on the issue by jaw-boning on stem cell research, too:
“We don’t even know that stem cell research will provide cures for anything — much less that it’s very close” to yielding major advances, Bush said.
No, we don't, but that's disingenuous - research is how we find the answers.
And reseach hasn't been given much of a chance. Embryonic stem cells were only first isolated in 1998 and federal funding was restricted in 2001. For reference, a polio vaccine was the result of 50 years of research.
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