Unless you’ve been under a rock since midday, you know that President Bush used veto power for the first time today, to kill a bill that would have expanded federal funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR). Over the next few days listen to the media, who are by and large supporters of ESCR to say Bush “banned” ESCR. No, he simply said we’re not going to spend taxpayer dollars on it. Guess what – the majority of the important scientific advances made in our society have been conceived of (no pun intended) and funded by PRIVATE INDUSTRY! Why does the government have to give funding to ESCR? Why not let pharmaceutical companies do it?

I have heard a couple of people posit that the reason the government needs to fund it is that private industry doesn’t want to spend the $$, because they don’t know what kind of payoff there will be. They do know that they can accomplish great things using stem cells collected from umbilical cord blood and from adults, and they’re agressively doing just that. The great thing is, there aren’t nearly as many morally objectionable things about cord blood stem cell research and adult stem cell research.

Let me say – according to the Church, those who destory those embryos, and those congressmen who voted to federally fund the destruction of embryos are anathema. This may just be an opportunity for some of these folks to re-evaluate where they really stand on life issues.