I got this in my email a few days ago and i though it might be an interesting thing for the rest of you to see. I in no way represent the ideas represented in this article, however i did agree with some of the points.
To: Journalists and Commentators
From: Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director, National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
(202) 626-8820, or send e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com
For further information, see: http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/
Re: John Kerry's doubletalk on cloning human embryos
Date: August 24, 2004
Senator John Kerry is misrepresenting both current government policy and the scientific facts regarding medical research using human stem cells.
At the same time, Senator Kerry is trying to obfuscate his support for using CLONING to mass create human embryos for research. Two national polls released yesterday may point to the motive for this doubletalk.
Some of Kerry's many recent distortions regarding "stem cell research" are critiqued in a recent column by Will Saletan, the chief political correspondent for Slate ("Revelation of the Nerds: The religion of stem-cell research," August 10, 2004).
http://slate.msn.com/id/2104983/
The sweeping implications of Kerry's positions, particularly with respect to the use of cloning to produce human embryos for research, are explored in "The Party of Cloning," by Eric Cohen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (The Weekly Standard, August 30, 2004). http://theweeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/496nwmnv.asp
The practice of using cloning to create human embryos for research is often referred to as "therapeutic cloning" (although a more objective and neutral term is "cloning for research"). Kerry has endorsed so-called 'therapeutic cloning' for years. ["While I am opposed to reproductive cloning, I believe that the process of somatic cell nuclear transplant (SCNT), commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning, should be protected." Kerry letter of Sept. 3, 2002.] On July 13, 2004, Kerry cosponsored a bill (S. 303) to allow the mass creation of human embryos by cloning solely for research, as long as they are not allowed to continue developing past 14 days. This bill has nothing whatever to do with so-called "excess" embryos created and stored in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics.
Kerry's sponsorship of this bill was specifically referenced by a staffer on the national Kerry campaign, quoted in a news story that appeared in the August 10 Wall Street Journal:
Kerry policy director Sarah Bianchi says the Kerry bill prohibits cloned embryos from developing for more than 14 days or from being implanted in a uterus so they could produce live births.
(The entire August 10 WSJ story, "Kerry treads cloning tightrope," is reproduced below.)
Yet, in blatant contradiction, this same "national policy director" was quoted as follows in the August 19 Associated Press story:
Bianchi said Kerry would allow scientists to study leftover embryos that had been created for infertility treatment and would otherwise be discarded. Kerry is "absolutely not" suggesting creating embryos for the sole purpose of research, Bianchi said.
(The AP story appeared in USA Today here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-08-20-virtual-candidates_x.htm )
Innumerable prominent supporters of "therapeutic cloning" have acknowledged what should be obvious -- somatic cell nuclear transfer (sometimes called "nuclear transplantation"), using a human nucleus, produces an embryo of the species homo sapiens, otherwise known as a human embryo. This is "human cloning," even if it is conducted for some purpose other than giving birth. (If the cloning process did not produce a human embryo, it could hardly turn into a human baby if implanted in a uterus, and the ban on implantation in the Kerry bill would make no sense. Dolly the cloned sheep began as Dolly the cloned sheep embryo, and so it has been with every other cloned mammal.) For quotes from pro-cloning or neutral sources demonstrating that "therapeutic cloning" creates human embryos for research, see:
http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/factsheetembryo.html
http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/gearheart022603.html
Why, then, the new claim by Bianchi that Kerry "absolutely [does] not" favor creating human embryos for research? Perhaps the Kerry campaign's internal polling has found results similar to those of two new polls, which were conducted independently in mid-August using scientific polling methods (by coincidence, both were released on August 23):
Wilson Research Strategies, Inc., 1,000 national adults, August 16-18, 2004, margin of error 3.1%:
Which of the following comes closest to your view?
1. Cloning to create human embryos for stem cell research which would kill them should be allowed and only cloning for reproduction should be banned: 24%
2. All human cloning should be banned: 69%
3. Don't know / refused: 7%
[Other questions and answers in this poll relating to stem cell research are found here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Killing_Embryos/NRLCStemCellPoll.pdf ]
International Communications Research, weighted sample of 1,001 adults, August 13-17, 2004, margin of error 3%:
Should scientists be allowed to use human cloning to create a supply of human embryos to be destroyed in medical research?
Yes: 13.3%
No: 79.8%
Don't know: 6.1%
Refused: 0.7%
[Other questions and answers in this poll related to cloning and other forms of embryonic stem cell research are found here: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2004/04-163.htm ]
In the new essay linked above, Eric Cohen writes, "So it seems Democrats are now poised to cross yet another ethical and political boundary: federal funding for the creation, study, and destruction of cloned human embryos. . . . the ideology of stem cells has made the Democrats the party of cloning. And like all true believers, they believe inconvenient facts can be ignored and that history is on their side."
Journalists should not be enablers in Kerry's attempt to deny the inconvenient fact that "therapeutic cloning" involves the mass creation and destruction of human embryos, nor should his campaign be indulged in its new claim that he does not favor the very result that the legislation he has cosponsored would authorize.
I know its a long article but i didn't dare leave out anything lest it spur a multitude of flaming political fireballs.
To: Journalists and Commentators
From: Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director, National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
(202) 626-8820, or send e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com
For further information, see: http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/
Re: John Kerry's doubletalk on cloning human embryos
Date: August 24, 2004
Senator John Kerry is misrepresenting both current government policy and the scientific facts regarding medical research using human stem cells.
At the same time, Senator Kerry is trying to obfuscate his support for using CLONING to mass create human embryos for research. Two national polls released yesterday may point to the motive for this doubletalk.
Some of Kerry's many recent distortions regarding "stem cell research" are critiqued in a recent column by Will Saletan, the chief political correspondent for Slate ("Revelation of the Nerds: The religion of stem-cell research," August 10, 2004).
http://slate.msn.com/id/2104983/
The sweeping implications of Kerry's positions, particularly with respect to the use of cloning to produce human embryos for research, are explored in "The Party of Cloning," by Eric Cohen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (The Weekly Standard, August 30, 2004). http://theweeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/496nwmnv.asp
The practice of using cloning to create human embryos for research is often referred to as "therapeutic cloning" (although a more objective and neutral term is "cloning for research"). Kerry has endorsed so-called 'therapeutic cloning' for years. ["While I am opposed to reproductive cloning, I believe that the process of somatic cell nuclear transplant (SCNT), commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning, should be protected." Kerry letter of Sept. 3, 2002.] On July 13, 2004, Kerry cosponsored a bill (S. 303) to allow the mass creation of human embryos by cloning solely for research, as long as they are not allowed to continue developing past 14 days. This bill has nothing whatever to do with so-called "excess" embryos created and stored in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics.
Kerry's sponsorship of this bill was specifically referenced by a staffer on the national Kerry campaign, quoted in a news story that appeared in the August 10 Wall Street Journal:
Kerry policy director Sarah Bianchi says the Kerry bill prohibits cloned embryos from developing for more than 14 days or from being implanted in a uterus so they could produce live births.
(The entire August 10 WSJ story, "Kerry treads cloning tightrope," is reproduced below.)
Yet, in blatant contradiction, this same "national policy director" was quoted as follows in the August 19 Associated Press story:
Bianchi said Kerry would allow scientists to study leftover embryos that had been created for infertility treatment and would otherwise be discarded. Kerry is "absolutely not" suggesting creating embryos for the sole purpose of research, Bianchi said.
(The AP story appeared in USA Today here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-08-20-virtual-candidates_x.htm )
Innumerable prominent supporters of "therapeutic cloning" have acknowledged what should be obvious -- somatic cell nuclear transfer (sometimes called "nuclear transplantation"), using a human nucleus, produces an embryo of the species homo sapiens, otherwise known as a human embryo. This is "human cloning," even if it is conducted for some purpose other than giving birth. (If the cloning process did not produce a human embryo, it could hardly turn into a human baby if implanted in a uterus, and the ban on implantation in the Kerry bill would make no sense. Dolly the cloned sheep began as Dolly the cloned sheep embryo, and so it has been with every other cloned mammal.) For quotes from pro-cloning or neutral sources demonstrating that "therapeutic cloning" creates human embryos for research, see:
http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/factsheetembryo.html
http://www.nrlc.org/killing_embryos/gearheart022603.html
Why, then, the new claim by Bianchi that Kerry "absolutely [does] not" favor creating human embryos for research? Perhaps the Kerry campaign's internal polling has found results similar to those of two new polls, which were conducted independently in mid-August using scientific polling methods (by coincidence, both were released on August 23):
Wilson Research Strategies, Inc., 1,000 national adults, August 16-18, 2004, margin of error 3.1%:
Which of the following comes closest to your view?
1. Cloning to create human embryos for stem cell research which would kill them should be allowed and only cloning for reproduction should be banned: 24%
2. All human cloning should be banned: 69%
3. Don't know / refused: 7%
[Other questions and answers in this poll relating to stem cell research are found here:
http://www.nrlc.org/Killing_Embryos/NRLCStemCellPoll.pdf ]
International Communications Research, weighted sample of 1,001 adults, August 13-17, 2004, margin of error 3%:
Should scientists be allowed to use human cloning to create a supply of human embryos to be destroyed in medical research?
Yes: 13.3%
No: 79.8%
Don't know: 6.1%
Refused: 0.7%
[Other questions and answers in this poll related to cloning and other forms of embryonic stem cell research are found here: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2004/04-163.htm ]
In the new essay linked above, Eric Cohen writes, "So it seems Democrats are now poised to cross yet another ethical and political boundary: federal funding for the creation, study, and destruction of cloned human embryos. . . . the ideology of stem cells has made the Democrats the party of cloning. And like all true believers, they believe inconvenient facts can be ignored and that history is on their side."
Journalists should not be enablers in Kerry's attempt to deny the inconvenient fact that "therapeutic cloning" involves the mass creation and destruction of human embryos, nor should his campaign be indulged in its new claim that he does not favor the very result that the legislation he has cosponsored would authorize.
I know its a long article but i didn't dare leave out anything lest it spur a multitude of flaming political fireballs.