Got a disease? Deal

If first lady Laura Bush were your soccer mom, she'd be the one parent on the sideline screaming, "Don't bother running! You'll never score!"\nAt least, that's her attitude on stem cell research. She thinks funding this science and having the potential to save the lives of many sick people, isn't a battle worth fighting simply because it gets peoples' hopes in the air. \nOn "Larry King Live," Larry King asked the first lady, "What's the rub to you?"\n"There isn't a rub to me," she claimed. "(Embryonic stem cell research) is very preliminary. I mean, I would say, the only rub is that from the talk, from what you hear or what you read, you'd think that there is a cure for Alzheimer's, you know, just around the corner, but that's not the way."\nOf course it's only "preliminary." The government isn't giving the research a dime. \n"So you're not opposed to it morally?" King probed. \n"No, I'm not," Laura said. "I mean, you know, my dad died of Alzheimer's."\nSo I guess everybody else's mom and dad should die of it, too. \nDespite the first couple's lack of confidence and respect for this science, the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research believes embryonic stem cell technology could cure Parkinson's disease, lymphoma, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Those are high expectations, but how will anyone know if they are achievable if the government won't support them? \nBy President Bush's definition, from the same Larry King interview, embryonic stem cell research is "derived from the destruction of a human embryo," but since the president has a sinister slant on semantics, here's how Ron Reagan, speaking out on behalf of the Coalition, explains it:\n"The nucleus of one of your cells is placed into a donor egg whose own nucleus has been removed," Reagan said at the Democratic National Convention. "A bit of chemical or electrical stimulation will encourage your cell's nucleus to begin dividing, creating new cells which will then be placed into a tissue culture. Those cells will generate embryonic stem cells containing only your DNA, thereby eliminating the risk of tissue rejection. These stem cells are then driven to become the very neural cells that are defective in your (specific disease). And finally, those cells with -- your DNA -- are injected into your brain where they will replace the faulty cells."\n"How'd you like to have your own personal biological repair kit?" Reagan added. \nBush calls it destruction; Reagan calls it a biological repair kit. Po-tay-to, po-taw-to.\nWhile Laura may deny this debate has anything to do with morals, it does. Republicans spin this science to sound like abortion to appease their religious right constituents. Just because "embryo" happens to be part of the title, it doesn't mean there are little tiny babies inside the cells, being sent to the slaughter house. Does Bush think Americans are so stupid they don't know the difference between a cell and a human? \n"These are embryos that represent life," said Bush, "and the fundamental question, as a society, is: Does society continue to take life; destroy life?" \nEvery time Bush scratches his head with confusion, skin cells fall from his scalp. Are those cells tiny, little people plunging to their death? I guess Bush would say so. \nSince when is Laura the authority on the promises of science? Regardless of whether or not a Bush administration will fund embryonic stem cell research, the science will develop eventually. That just means until an administration will support the endeavor for cures, more people will die. \n"I think a society which promotes a culture of life is a compassionate society and a decent society," Bush said in the Larry King interview.\nIt's funny that Bush's "culture of life" has so little sympathy for the dying.