President Bush's first-ever veto last week of legislation that would have expanded federally financed embryonic stem cell research was just another craven attempt to promote religion over science by pandering to social conservatives ahead of this fall's midterm elections. But we think the voting public is smart enough to understand the issue as stem cell research – including the use of embryos that otherwise would be discarded – has gained steadily in opinion polls. California voters overwhelmingly approved the issue in 2004 when Proposition 71 was passed. The measure calls for $3 billion in bonds to further stem cell research. Immediately, opponents went to court to prevent the funding from moving forward, but last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a $150 million loan from the state's general fund for grants to stem cell scientists.
The governor's move, coming in the midst of his re-election campaign as he moves to the political center in an effort to win back independents and others who abandoned him during his disastrous special election last year, is nonetheless another sign that the president is out of step with scientific research that has the potential to cure or treat diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and possibly others such as AIDS. While the promise and limits of embryonic stem cells is not known, it's important to find out.
Yet Bush and his cronies keep playing games with the public. Prior to Bush's veto of the Senate bill, his political adviser, Karl Rove, told the Denver Post's editorial board that researchers have found "far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells." That is inaccurate, according to most stem cell research scientists, including a dozen who were contacted by the Chicago Tribune. One of those, Dr. Markus Grompe, is a Catholic who objects to research involving the destruction of embryos, the Tribune reported, yet even he said there is "no factual basis to compare the promise" of adult stem cells and those taken from embryos. Other researchers wrote a letter in the journal Science that said exaggerated claims for adult stem cells "mislead laypeople and cruelly deceive patients."
We don't know yet whether stem cells of any type will be useful in combating various diseases. But that's the point of research. And by vetoing a bill that had such broad, bipartisan support, Bush is once again putting his religious beliefs ahead of scientific research.
Gays and the k-word
It's almost as if we're back in 1998 – that year, as many readers will recall, was when Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), speaking on The Armstrong Williams Show, made his famous comment that homosexuality is a sin. "You should love that person. You should not try to mistreat them or treat them as outcasts. You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol É or sex addiction É or kleptomaniacs."
Fast-forward eight years. It's July 2006, and in Ohio, site of a hotly contested race for governor, the GOP candidate, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, has again called up the k-word to describe us. In an interview with the Columbus Dispatch Blackwell was asked whether he thought homosexuality was a sin and whether gays can be cured. "I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it's a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed. I think it is a transgression against God's law, God's will. É Our expectation is that one's genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist, or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes."
What is it with socially conservative Republicans and kleptomania? At least we've "moved up," so to speak, in Blackwell's opinion. We're not merely like alcoholics or sex addicts like Lott said; now, we're also likened to arsonists.
Equality Ohio, a statewide gay rights group, is demanding an apology and retraction from Blackwell. But from the looks of things, that doesn't appear likely to happen. While Blackwell is entitled to his opinions, we wonder why he felt compelled to take a page from Lott's playbook, likening us to people who have an obsessive compulsion to steal. If Blackwell is compelled to disparage us, at least he could have been more original.