Back here I noted th…

Back here I noted that adult stem cells keep looking better and better, being virtually as good as embryonic stem cells, not to mention their proven track record. Well, looks like Bill Frist hasn’t read that study.

Breaking with President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Friday he now supports legislation to remove some of the administration’s limitations on embryonic stem cell research.

Frist, an abortion opponent who just last month said he did not support expanding federal financing of research on embryos, said his decision was consistent with both his experience as a physician and his anti-abortion stance.

The crux of his argument appears to be this:

The Tennessee Republican, who has been said to be eyeing a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, said only stem cells from embryos that “would otherwise be discarded,” not implanted in a woman or frozen indefinitely, should be considered for research.

First of all, never say “never”. As I pointed out in a diary on Redstate.org (in the first set of comments), saying “never” amounts to predicting the future, which is not a power I typically want to give to the federal government. Ask these 21 children who were adopted as embryos.

Second, this amounts to human experimentation. If you don’t consider these embryos truly “human”, then what are they? They certainly aren’t fish eggs. And further, if they weren’t human, the scientists wouldn’t want them.

I don’t see how someone who is against abortion can be for human experimentation on embryos. The whole “would otherwise be discarded” argument is morally equivalent to a woman getting an abortion because she didn’t want to have a baby right now.

“I give huge moral significance to the human embryo, it is nascent human life, what that means is as we advance science, we treat that embryo with dignity, with respect,” Frist said.

And performing experiments on them is…what, exactly?

Frist said additional stem cells should be used, so long as there was a careful process of informed consent in which the parents had decided that the embryos should be discarded, not adopted or frozen.

Ah, so “aborting” them is OK as long as the proper government paperwork is fill out. Gotcha. Now that’s “respect”.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out. Comments welcome.)

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