January 23, 2005
Protecting the Stem Cell from Research
By Byron LaMasters
Rick Perry will protect our stem cells from research as long as he's governor:
Republican Gov. Rick Perry reaffirmed his anti-abortion stance Saturday and, in a stark disagreement with potential rival Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said he doesn't support embryonic stem cell research.
"As long as I am the governor of this great state, I will oppose any taxpayer dollars being used and spent on research that ends a human life," Perry said.
Hutchison, a Republican who is considering a run for governor next year, said last month that state leaders should develop a stem-cell research policy that keeps Texas from being "left in the dust by California." That state recently approved a $3 billion initiative to fund stem-cell research.
Personally, I have a hard time seeing the moral equivalence between a stem cell that will never develop into a human being, and a human being with cancer or Alzheimer's disease whose life could potentially be saved by stem cell research.
The article goes on to address pharmacists to refuse filling prescriptions for birth control and emergency contraceptives:
NARAL Pro-Choice Texas is more concerned about another bill that Wheat said would allow a pharmacist to refuse to fill birth control or emergency contraceptive prescriptions.
I respectfully disagree with pro-life advocates on many issues in the abortion debate, but the idea of allowing individual pharmacists to decline to provide emergency prescriptions is just asinine. If you have a moral or religious objection to birth control, then you shouldn't be a pharmacist.
What's next? Laws allowing bartenders who object to drinking alcohol to decline serving alcoholic drinks? Laws allowing butchers who are vegetarians to object to cutting and serving meat? If you have a certain religious or moral objection to the demands of a certain profession, then find a new job.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at January 23, 2005 01:09 PM
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Amen! I guess, in the infinate wisdom of the Legislature, they should place a similar restriction on Viagra. After all, a pharmacist who believes sex should only be used for procreation may not want to fill an order of that stuff, either.
"As long as I am the governor of this great state, I will oppose any taxpayer dollars being used and spent on research that ends a human life," Perry said.
But it's obvious he doesn't oppose using taxpayer dollars being used and spent on executing inmates. Isn't THAT ending a human life? What a hypocrit.
That's an interesting analogy. I wonder if a bar or restaurant owner refused to serve a woman because his religion frowned upon unescorted women dining in public, or women drinking without their husband's permission, what would the reaction be?
I wish we could beat that wingnut Frank Corte R-San Antonio. He carries all those crazy anti-choice, anti-family planning bills.
Gov. Perry characterizes a clump of cells as a "human life" that he is determined to protect.
However, thousands of such purported "human lives" are routinely destroyed every year at the behest of the "parents", i.e., they are discarded as excess/unwanted embryos.
If all of these discarded embryos are in fact "human lives" as Perry so passionately argues, why do we not prosecute the "parents"--the ones who ordered the embryo destruction--as murderers? And why not likewise prosecute the fertilization clinics on the same basis?
Moreover, while Perry seeks to protect these "human livee," I see no effort on his part to find female surrogates for the embryos to be discarded, or more importantly to provide state funds for the upbringing and education of the resultant children.
Perry is but a political grandstander, and a fool to boot.
