Bush ignores stem cell research potential

Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s Disease. Diabetes. Most likely, one of these incurable diseases affects you and me, whether it be directly or through someone you love.

Doctors finally have found a way to end their patients’ pain, but the Bush administration has an issue with the breakthrough technology. One would think that he would want to redeem himself after several mistakes he has made while president. However, he is busy wasting our money on the freedom of others instead of freeing his own citizens of their painful diseases.

This technology is stem cell research. Stem cells are replenishing cells that can divide and become the type of cell to which they are added — such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell or a brain cell. They can create new cells that are not affected by disease. Embryonic stem cells are derived from embryos that have been created through in vitro or artificial insemination. Hundreds of these embryos are created, but only a few are used. The rest are just kept in test tubes in a freezer — never to be used at all. There are plenty of these unused embryos but President Bush has set a limit on only allowing 100 stem cell lines to be tested — some of which are useless to science — and prevented the creation of more.

The Bush administration is against stem cell research because these cells are being taken from an embryo — a living thing. It is a component of human life and is being tampered with. It basically is the same argument as the one against abortion, that a living thing is not being given a life to live. It is different than abortion, however, because it will never be given a chance to be anything other then a frozen embryo. The stem cells aren’t being used because they weren’t selected to be implanted. It’s a pointless situation under current regulations because they’ll remain frozen forever ­ wasting a potential life-saving resource.

Doctors are confident that the regeneration of cells can be used to cure bone marrow diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma as well as muscle and blood diseases. This research is not unethical. President Bush would rather let non-living embryos take up space in a freezer then alleviate the suffering of millions of Americans. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, over 4.5 million people are affected by Alzheimer’s alone. Something needs to be done.

The argument that an embryo is a living thing is a poor one — it can’t talk, it can’t love, it can’t think. This research is vital to our nation’s health. Bush needs to get his mind off the election — he won’t it win anyways — and put his values in order. They got off track a while ago.

Katie Austen is a sophomore SMAD major.