More on stem-cell research

Apparently, the quote from John Edwards in my previous post was slightly truncated. Here’s the full sentence, which Edwards said at a Monday rally in Newton, Iowa (from Charles Krauthammer’s WaPo editorial):

If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.

Krauthammer hammers Edwards thus:

As a doctor by training, I've known better than to believe the hype -- and have tried in my own counseling of people with new spinal cord injuries to place the possibility of cure in abeyance. I advise instead to concentrate on making a life (and a very good life it can be) with the hand one is dealt. The greatest enemies of this advice have been the snake-oil salesmen promising a miracle around the corner. I never expected a candidate for vice president to be one of them.

Krauthammer, who himself suffers from paralysis, also notes that Bush was in fact the first president to provide federal funding for stem cell research (with some limitations), contrary to the lies of Kerry and Edwards implicating that Bush’s “ban” stands in the way of a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Edwards shamelessly exploit Christopher Reeve for political gain, pandering “snake-oil” giving false hope to those who might be deceived to vote for Kerry. The cure for Alzheimer’s by way of stem cells is a fiction, as Ronald McKay, an NIH stem-cell researcher, has admitted publicly, but “people need a fairy tale.”

On a separate note, I voted NO on California’s Proposition 71 which would provide funding for stem-cell research by borrowing $3 billion over 10 years. Putting aside my ethical objections to embryonic stem-cell research, this is also bad fiscal policy. California is still trying to recover from the fiscal mess, and the proponents of Prop. 71 want to plunge it further. [economic libertarian hat on] If stem-cell research has any merit, let the private sector invest in it. Government will only waste money that benefit only the snake-oil panderers. [economic libertarian hat off]