Kerry calls on Bush to reverse stem cell policy

[Cocoa]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5405945

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - After a week of political silence to honor Ronald Reagan, Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry called on Saturday for a White House policy change to allow more research into Alzheimer's, the brain-wasting disease that afflicted the former president.

The senator from Massachusetts joined a growing chorus, including the voice of Reagan's widow, Nancy, in urging President Bush to remove restrictions on embryonic stem cell research that could help combat Alzheimer's.

"We must lift the barriers that stand in the way of science and push the boundaries of medical exploration so that researchers can find the cures that are there, if only they are allowed to look," Kerry said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

Bush has placed limits on stem cell research and opposes using stem cells from most embryos.

more...

[Sporadicus]

1. Good Going, John

Strike while the iron is hot. * may regret wanting to keep All Things Ronnie around until the election.

[Cocoa]

3. do it before Bush flip-flops

I heard he was reconsidering, but now he's probably stuck.

[lovedems]

2. I wonder how many republicans are close to a breakdown?

First, Bill and Hillary get front row seats at the state funeral (I wonder where Gingrich and Delay and the other scumbags of the right had to sit? I know the seating is protocol but they were probably pissed nonetheless! I wonder how the chimp felt being so close to a man he has wrongly blamed for many of the nations problems?)then you have Ron jr. taking an obvious jab at the chimp (with his mother's approval?) and now Kerry quick to make his own statement that will likely be favorable to the Reagan family.

I am sure a few conservative veins are close to popping.

[Catch22Dem]

5. Can you explain please?

"then you have Ron jr. taking an obvious jab at the chimp (with his mother's approval?)"

I've taken a serious break from the news this week. Couldn't stomach it. What happened?

[progressivebydesign]

6. Ron Jr. spoke yesterday at the California event..

. he spoke of certain people wearing religion on their sleeve for political gain... etc..

You can find more info, and a direct transcript in General Discussion this weekend, we had several threads going on it. It was an obvious jab at Bush, but some freepers thought he meant Gore and Clinton and/or Kerry. Go figure.

[mom cat]

7. Got the link? I missed the thread. I became aversive to the "R" word.

[peekaloo]

15. here's one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1776651

[peekaloo]

16. btw....did you see that Rove was seated directly behind

Al Gore? Probably kicked the back of his seat during the entire ceremony.

[slinkerwink]

4. good for kerry!

[Cocoa]

8. here's the text of his radio address

the audio is at the site as well...

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0612b.html

Democratic Radio Address
Remarks of Senator John Kerry

June 12, 2004

For Immediate Release


Good morning, this is John Kerry.

Yesterday, we said goodbye to President Ronald Reagan.

For his children and his friends, and most of all, for his courageous wife Nancy, this painful goodbye began almost ten years ago, with the diagnosis of a disease that took Ronald Reagan away before it took his life.

There is a moment after you get the call from a doctor that you or a loved one must face a disease like Alzheimer’s where you decide that it can’t mean the end – that you won’t let it. So in our own way, we become researchers and scientists. We become advocates and friends, and we reach for a cure that cannot – that must not – be too far away.

Some call this denial. But I’m sure that Nancy Reagan – the wife of an eternal optimist – calls it hope.

She told the world that Alzheimer’s had taken her own husband to a distant place, and then she stood up to help find a breakthrough that someday will spare other husbands, wives, children and parents from the same kind of heartache.

Millions share this hope, and it is because of their commitment that stem cell research has brought us closer to finding ways to treat Alzheimer’s and many other diseases.

Today, more than 100 million Americans have illnesses that one day could be cured or treated with stem-cell therapy. Stem cells could replace damaged heart cells or cells destroyed by cancer, offering a new lease on life to those suffering from diseases that once came with a certain death sentence. Stem cells have the power to slow the loss of a grandmother’s memory, calm the hand of an uncle with Parkinson’s, save a child from a lifetime of daily insulin shots, or permanently lift a best friend from his wheelchair.

Chances are that you love someone with such a disease. You may be that someone. So what can we do to make sure that doctors and scientists keep learning, keep discovering, and keep researching stem cells so that the incredible potential for discovery becomes a reality in people’s lives?

We must lift the barriers that stand in the way of science and push the boundaries of medical exploration so that researchers can find the cures that are there, if only they are allowed to look. We can do this while providing strict ethical oversight.

We must make the funding of stem cell research a priority in our universities and our medical community. And we must secure more funding for it at agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Above all, we must look to the future not with fear, but with the hope and the faith that advances in medicine will advance our best values. America has always been a land of discovery – of distant horizons and unconquered frontiers. But progress has always brought with it ethical concerns that this time we have gone too far. Believe it or not, there was a time when some questioned the morality of heart transplants. Not too long ago, we heard the same kind of arguments against the biotechnology research that now saves stroke victims and those with leukemia.

I know there are ethical issues, but people of goodwill and good sense can resolve them. For I also know the fear that most Americans feel at some point – the fear of a diagnosis that may take our life or sentence us to a diminished life.

In the past few years, I have seen cancer and stroke take my own parents. Last year, because of the remarkable medical advances we have made, I was cured of prostate cancer. Now everywhere I go in America, people come up to me and tell me about their struggle with illness or the bravery of family members who faces it. They share their worries, but they also believe that this is a country of the future, a can-do country.

The medical discoveries that come from stem cell are crucial next steps in humanity’s uphill climb. And part of this nation’s greatness lies in the fact that we have led the world in great medical discoveries, with our breakthroughs and our beliefs going hand-in-hand.

If we pursue the limitless potential of our science – and trust that we can use it wisely – we will save millions of lives and earn the gratitude of future generations.

Thanks for listening.

[bluedog]

10. goodness don't forget

to lump these thoughts together.In the New York Post in Feb 20 2001.Nancy Reagan called bush "the villiage idiot"......guess thats what they think of bushy!!

[Bozita]

18. "people of goodwill and good sense can resolve them (ethical problems)"

How many Republicans on Capitol Hill can pass through this filter?

[sadiesworld]

9. The right (correct) thing to do...

AND politically smart. Nice combo, Kerry.

:thumbsup:

[Tellurian]

11. Kerry on Radio Pushes Stem Cell Research

WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Kerry endorsed Nancy Reagan's efforts to help find a cure for Alzheimer's disease and challenged the Bush administration Saturday to relax restrictions on stem cell research to pursue potential cures for that and other illnesses.

Ethical questions raised by the use of human embryos can be resolved through ``good will and good sense,'' Kerry said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. Researchers can find the cures that are there, ``if only they are allowed to look.''

The Democrats' presumed candidate to face President Bush in November said that Mrs. Reagan ``told the world that Alzheimer's had taken her own husband to a distant place, and then she stood up to help find a breakthrough that someday will spare other husbands, wives, children and parents from the same kind of heartache.''

The Bush-Cheney campaign defended the president's record on stem cell research as ensuring that it is conducted ``in ways that respect human dignity and help build the culture of life.''

``Under President Bush's thoughtful leadership, for the first time federal dollars are supporting human embryonic stem cell research consistent with the ethical guidelines'' he put in place, said campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Bush signed an executive order in August 2001 that limited federal help to financing stem cell research on 78 embryonic stem cell lines then in existence. Because day-old embryos are destroyed when stem cells are extracted, the process is opposed by some conservatives who link it to abortion.

Kerry said stem cells ``have the power to slow the loss of a grandmother's memory, calm the hand of an uncle with Parkinson's, save a child from a lifetime of daily insulin shots or permanently lift a best friend from his wheelchair.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Kerry-Stem-Cell.html?8bl

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. The human embryos Kerry refers to generally are not aborted fetuses.

Instead they are usually those that are left over from artificial insemination. If they aren't used to create a baby they are destroyed. This is where the right to life argument against stem cell research falls short.

If Bush was consistant he'd be against artificial insemination as well. While I don't agree with their stance at least the Catholic church is consistant on this issue.

[Tellurian]

19. I think Kerry is smart enough to grasp the concept...

Bush otoh...

coloring books and unique diagrams could
help. Then someone needs to 'splain it to him.

[Tellurian]

12. more from Kerry's radio address:

Shortly before Reagan's death, Kerry and 57 other senators asked Bush to relax the restrictions, and Mrs. Reagan has long argued that using stem cells from embryos could lead to cures for a number of diseases.

Since she spoke out at a research fund-raiser in May for renewed government commitment to stem cell research, experts have said finding a cure to Alzheimer's, because of how it attacks the brain, would pose a far more daunting challenge than other conditions through the stem cells approach.

Kerry said financing of stem cell research must be a priority in universities and the medical laboratories, as well as federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

``If we pursue the limitless potential of our science, and trust that we can use it wisely, we will save millions of lives and earn the gratitude of future generations,'' Kerry said.

[Leilani]

13. What a concept!!!

Allowing science to prevail....Fundies have a real problem with science....science threatens their rigidly held beliefs.

[Darranar]

14. Well, for once Kerry is standing up on something...

he's completely correct here.