Wednesday, July 19, 2006

President Bush's first time?

For the first time, President Bush used a veto to put down a stem cell research bill.

In a recent Gallup poll, 61 percent a respondents said that embryonic research was morally acceptable.

The same poll also showed that 43 percent of respondents believe that abortion is morally unacceptable.

The vote in the Senate was 63-37 in favor of the bill. The House passed the bill 238-194.

What's interesting, is that I personally called the offices of the five Mormons who sit in the Senate and 4 out of those 5 senators voted in favor of federally financing stem cell research. I'm also in the middle of calling the offices of mormon congressman and so far 4 of the seven that I've called voted in favor of the bill.

Here are two links on the recent developments.

CNN
FOX

Also, from the LDS website:

"The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not taken a position regarding the use of embryonic stem cells for research purposes. The absence of a position should not be interpreted as support for or opposition to any other statement made by Church members, whether they are for or against embryonic stem cell research."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Joe,

It's a personal question, so I don't have any expectation for you to respond, but how do you feel about stem cell research?

Great clarification by the way, I'm going to add it to my post.

Anonymous said...

Joe,

Well articulated. If I had an opinion of my own on the subject I would offer it.

Let me ask you more questions if you don't mind.

When do you believe the spirit enters the body? I assume from your post that you believe it happens at the embryonic stage?

Also, to my understanding, the bill that was recently voted on would use those frozen embryos for research. The bill would not create more. You obviously know that. Does that mean you would have supported the bill?

Lastly, while you cannot speak for other people, what rationale can you give for these mormon senators who voted in favor of the bill.

Grifter said...

As soon as an egg is fertilized, life has been created.

is this empirically observable? also, the finer points of what constitutes "life" need to be addressed. Seems like a developed nervous system (among many other things) ia a necessary pre-condition..these are issues that we won't resolve here, i know. there are just multiple variables to consider.

It is refreshing to see everyone examining the details of this issue though. I don't think it is as black and white as many people want to make it (and what is, really?).

Grifter said...

fatalist?

Qwarto said...

I firmly believe all this veto for the research is a smoke screen in an elections year.
To me is just to make the a clear point that Congress can think different from the President. These crooks made a marketing masterpiece once again.