Touting Latest Stem Cell Research Bodes New Life For Big Bush Edict Blunder
Charles Krauthammer is a well-educated psychiatrist, wheel chair-bound paralytic and conservative syndicated columnist distributed by the Washington Post. He does occasionally step out of conservative character and defy being put into a political category, but his writings are closely watched by learned conservatives.
Now, however, he is seizing upon some of the latest research to justify President Bush's limits on federal help for stem-cell research. We make the politically incorrect mention of his physical state, the result of a 1972 diving accident, because one would think someone who has ex- perienced and benefited from some of the best in medical work would be a bit more generous in allowing it to be available to others.
Krauthammer declares in a column, "The embryonic stem cell de- bate is over" and cited recent research as meaning Bush's 2001 execu- tive order that has crippled stem cell research has "been so thoroughly vindicated." Krauthammer praises Bush for taking a "moral stance" in saving human embryos. Bush's "moral stance" was mainly an effort to cater to the anti-abortionists and a major right-wing causes.
If that assertion catches on, it could set back this valuable field of research for many more years beyond the delay Bush's "moral stance" already has caused.
The new research, conducted simultaneously by researchers in Wisconsin and Japan, claims stem cells, which determine how animals, including humans, turn out, can be harvested from the skin of a patient for treating genetically based illnesses. This is an especially important segment of research because scientists are finding more and more evi- dence that all illness may be genetically based. Any breakthroughs in that field of study are important.
The new research would be a tremendous breakthrough, but most experts in the field say it does not obviate the need for embryonic stem cell research, still the most valuable source of the magical cells.
