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Motivating Stem Cell Research ... and the Election

In a remarkable response to Christopher Reeve's death, Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards promised that the Kerry administration has a plan to cure paralysis through federally funded embryonic stem cells.

From New York Post reports [hat tip: Powerline]:

TEMPE, Ariz. — John Edwards is claiming that if John Kerry wins the White House, paralyzed people like Christopher Reeve will get out of their wheelchairs and walk again — touching off a pre-debate fury.

That claim is "shameful" and a "falsehood," shot back the U.S. Senate's only doctor, Majority Leader Bill Frist, heading into tonight's final Bush-Kerry debate in Arizona.

Edwards made his startling boast of miraculous cures to come in Newton, Iowa, after the death on Sunday of "Superman" Reeve, who was paralyzed in a 1995 horse-jumping accident.

"If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to get up out of that wheelchair and walk again," Edwards said on Monday.

[etc]

In response, CNN reports that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a former heart surgeon, asserted:

I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people," Frist said. "We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.

"It is cruel to people who have disabilities and chronic diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a physician who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope."

Kornblau, Edwards' spokesman, said, "What's crass is George Bush standing in the way of promising stem cell research."

Others are weighing in on Edwards' inappropriate exploitation of Reeves' passing. [update: see also Sean Gleeson]

I would add that the use of embryonic stem cells necessarily involves the destruction of a human life. You must take a life to conduct the research that scientists speculate has the potential to provide a therapeutic advancement. Kerry and Edwards passionately and inappropriately promise to use federal funding in this effort.

Whether or not you agree with my first point, it is worth considering that no credible source has come close to showing that Edwards’ claims are true. [Note that John Kerry, when asked about what Edwards said replied, "That's what the scientists tell us — that we're not that far away from breakthroughs."]

Scientists who make claims like Edwards loose credibility and funding. Companies who make claims like Edwards get sanctioned by the SEC and are subject to stock holder lawsuits. Apparently, Edwards believes that politicians who make outrageous claims get elected.

Posted by tim at October 13, 2004 7:41 AM

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