Wednesday, July 27, 2005

You make me feel like dancing

There's a new study that shows promise for using embryonic stem cells to heal spinal cord injuries. It's early, but promising. Sidenote: some folks try to gloss over it, but there are different types of stem cells, from different sources, and they are not all the same. As everyone knows, research using these little engines that could has been hamstrung by our fearless leader.Catering to his base, he has been happy to limit research funding and limit the availability of new stem cell lines. It's a moral issue, he says, supporting the so-called culture of life he's so keen on. Meanwhile, people who are very alive, people with CF, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's, suffer. And what of the undifferentiated stem cells from aborted fetuses and unused embryos from IVF procedures? Are they saved somehow? No, they are discarded. Dumpstered. I realize this is old news, but it's another example of someone else's morality, distorted in my opinion, being imposed on us, to the detriment of living, breathing mothers and daughters and brothers and friends and it's maddening to me so I'm just going to go ON about it as long as I fucking feel like it.
Oh yeah. It's also an example of how this administration gives it to us front and backdoor. They want to keep the gays from marrying, justifying the discrimination by saying the majority of the country wants marriage to be between only a man and a woman. So, though I disagree with that rationale, what does the majority of the country feel about embryonic stem cell research?

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