Opinion-Credit Bush's Veto For Stem-Cell Find

Here's an op-ed that I wrote back in 2007 for Nevada LIFE in the Reno Gazette Journal.   I'm re-posting it tonight because a Wesley Smith is reporting that a paralyzed man is walking on his own and has sensation in his legs after a non-embryonic stem cell transplant.  Do you remember all the things Harry Reid said about President Bush for not going along with embryonic stem cell supporters like Harry Reid.  It's obvious who between the two is the bigger man.

Opinion-Credit Bush's Veto For Stem-Cell Find

Don Nelson

 Reno Gazette Journal
 December 4, 2007

The news that scientists were able to reprogram skin cells back into embryonic like-(pluripotent) cells and then turn them into each of the body's three cell layers without killing human embryos diminishes, if not ends, the argument for embryonic stem cell research that destroys embryos and the rationale for human cloning.

One secret of embryonic stem cell research is that even if scientists used the embryos available in fertility labs, they would not create the genetic diversity necessary for mass cures. Human cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer) to create embryos for stem cells was thought to be necessary to overcome the problems of rejection and produce patient specific stem cell matches.

This new discovery can achieve matches without cloning and without destroying human life because it reprograms a person's own cells and bypasses the complicated, expensive and immoral process of cloning.

Now scientists should have stem cells with the properties they said for years that they needed for regenerative medicine. But after years of saying that embryonic stem cell research that destroys human embryos was the only or best option, who would have believed this discovery? President Bush.

When President Bush vetoed an embryonic stem cell bill that would have led to more killing of human embryos, Sen. Harry Reid accused the president of "putting politics ahead of safe, responsible science." He said the veto was a "most un-American thing by turning his back on science." Bush was "putting the politics of his narrow ideology ahead of saving lives," had decided that curing diseases "was not as important as catering to his right-wing base," vetoed the bill "with the health and hope of millions of Americans hanging in the balance," and said "our best scientists continue to work with one hand tied behind their back."

Congressman Edward Markey said the veto would "be remembered as a Luddite moment in American history." Local activists said Bush vetoed hope for sufferers.

But while Reid was trashing the president, the "Luddite-narrow ideology" president was talking about the possibility of this new technology and funding efforts like this by presidential directive when Congress would not.

The president was a visionary leader and believed in the resourcefulness of scientists. He deserves credit for insisting on ethical research. Had he not, more time and resources would have been spent on research that destroys human life, has not worked as scientists had hoped and appears to be ending.

With this discovery, it's time to pass the Brownback-Landrieu cloning ban and ban all human cloning.

This discovery, along with the incredible breakthroughs with non-embryonic stem cell research, is something we can all celebrate. Ethical science is good science.

Don Nelson is president of Nevada LIFE.