Josh Bolten squirms during Stem Cell questions – Crooks and Liars
It’s interesting to watch Bolten try to put lipstick on this pig. There’s a nonsensical ring to the president’s policies on this issue and “Timmah” does a pretty good job of actually asking questions that expose the inherent contradictions.
The whole thing makes me wonder why the dichotomy between public and private research? Is it morally superior if private money, rather than public money finances the destruction of embryos the presidents spokesman says are human lives? I begin to suspect that this isn’t about the 128 snowflake babies that were adopted out of 400,000 slated for destruction. They were merely stage props there for there “awwww ain’t that cute” value. It was simple misdirection.
Nothing in the bill vetoed last week would prevent the adoption of embryos by others. Maybe this has to do with him wanting big pharma to reap the benefit and profit of stem cell cures. If government research advances knowledge, we all benefit. If private industry does it, just their stock holders benefit, at least until years later when patents expire. It fits nicely with Bush’s proven track record as a empty-suit shill for wealthy interests. Sadly, once again “Christian values” are used to cover simple greed.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on the beneficence of big pharma to give these possible cures. I seem to recall seeing some recent reports of pharma companies jacking up prices of treatments for rare cancers, not because of production cost increases, raw material prices or even using profits to subsidize new research, but because of inherent value. This is to say you should pay many times the old price and impoverish yourself doing so because you have no choice. It’s like watching someone finger a vial of lifesaving drugs, smile coldly at you and say, “what’s it worth to you.”
Either those 400,000 embryos are human life and deserve protection, or they are not. If it’s true then private researchers would be guilty of murder. If true, in vitro fertilization clinics should not be allowed to create life that will be destroyed. Why should in vitro be allowed if what the president believes is true? It’s nonsensical.
