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June 11, 2004 With the death of Ronald Reagan, and after his long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, an interesting front has been shoved back into the headlines, courtesy of Her Conservative Majesty Nancy Reagan: stem-cell research. I commented briefly on the subject in a previous column, Stem of Progress, and wish to add more to the debate I put forth. Recently, conservatives in Washington have tried to find a fitting way to remember President Reagan, going so far as to talk of bumping John F. Kennedy (Democrat) from the fifty-cent piece, or Andrew Jackson (Democrat) from the twenty- dollar bill. I believe, with Nancy and no less than 200 Congressmen and women on my side, that the best way to commemorate Ronald Reagan’s sacrifices and gifts is through fully funding stem-cell research, raising the bans and limitations put in place by President Bush, and allowing millions of people the opportunity to avoid what President Reagan was stricken with. 58 Senators, Republican and Democrat, Liberal and Conservative, wrote President George W. Bush to protest the restrictions on stem-cell research. Bush, in a move history will either see as unwavering or arrogantly foolish, refused to move his position. Laura Bush brushed aside Nancy Reagan’s pleas on television, and President Bush refused to comment on the subject. Meanwhile, millions of people, millions of Americans grow ill and die due to diseases that could be treatable with the research and use of stem-cells. As of right now, fertility clinics use multiple embryos inserted into the female mother-to-be in hopes that one will survive long enough to create a medically viable fetus and, over time, a child. Embryos not used in the process are thrown into biohazard bins and destroyed. Wait a minute, stem cells come from embryos just like what we’re throwing away! We’re throwing away things that could possibly serve a great, momentous, ground-breaking medical purpose! Why? President Bush deemed it so. Embryos are simple clumps of cells – unfeeling, unconscious, unthinking, unknowing masses of cells. We have no problem throwing these masses away in trash cans, but we dare not use them to research cures and methods of prevention for diseases like those that took Ronald Reagan to a place where Nancy could no longer reach him. This is not a partisan issue – Nancy Reagan, the wife of a great Conservative Revolutionary – has shown that to be true. This is a matter of human welfare, and while I did not agree with President Reagan on many of the issues he championed, he was not a man to ignore the welfare of the people. Ronald Wilson Reagan died at the age of 93, the oldest leader this country has ever had. Let his death not turn us back to the trenches of mud- slinging partisanship. Let it show us what can be done for the welfare of the people. My thoughts go out to Nancy and the Reagan family. ------------ About the author: Max Burns lives in Indianapolis and interns with the Indiana Democratic Party. He is the webmaster of The Foaming Liberal and author of the fantasy-fiction novel "Alcardia". He is currently a junior at Lawrence North High School and is active in political clubs and associations. Email: MBurns_NS@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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