Pro Embryo Stem Cell Supporters Get a Word from the Lord

Carl Hall, science writer with the San Francisco Chronicle has a good piece out today. Hall writes, "Chris Bell, a Democrat running a longshot campaign for governor of Texas, asserted divine support for turning stem cell research into a major wedge issue across the country. "I believe God wants us to use science and technology to help our fellow man," Bell told a friendly crowd Sunday in Palo Alto."

I just love to hear the name of God invoked when creating political wedge issues.

Just give me that old time religion!

Apart from Bell's laughable claims about his conversation with God about stem cell research, Hall's piece isn't really news. More of the same old dish about the underfunded field thanks to the President's restrictions. This is laughable knowing how much dough the feds are funded in 2005. NIH gave out $137 million in human and non human embryo stem cell research grants. And more to laugh at when Hall reports that the only ones who object to embryo stem cell research are the religious right and the opponents of abortion.

Hall writes about organizers who are considering launching a "million patient march"on Washington as a way to generate public interest and support for their cause. I wonder if the million patient march organizers might want to get together with the pro-physician assisted suicide group under the slogan of, "give me cures or give me death?"

I scratch my head, as one group wants cures no matter what the cost and the other group wants the choice to end their lives in the face of an unbearable life. There must be a third way? A middle ground? Yes, ethical advances in science and technology and a medical profession prepared to deal with the dying.

Human rights for all!