On today’s “American Morning,” CNN’s Bill Hemmer interviewed Rep. Christopher Shays on embryo-destroying research, and ran a clip of Tom DeLay for a little rebuttal: “He is not one of those 50 Republicans I mentioned at the outset here. And consistently we hear from Republicans and those opposing this about the destruction of human life. When you balance your own decision going forward with this vote, how do you come down on that side?”
Shays answered: “Well, I think that they’ve got ideology that’s boxed them in to the extreme. These embryonic stem cells were never in a mother’s womb. They will never be in a mother’s womb. They will be destroyed. In in vitro fertilization, you create 50 eggs, say, with the hope that you can have a child from one. You destroy the others. And what we’re saying is, ‘Don’t destroy them. Allow for certain cells within the embryo to be taken.’ The embryo is just a speck and within that speck we’re taking out certain cells that can create any cell.”
In other words, don’t destroy them. We’ll destroy them for you. It would be nice if anchormen would acknowledge that the destruction of embryos in research is not merely a conservative talking point. It is a very scientific fact. It would be nice for them to correct pro-”science” congressmen who dance around that fact. It would be nice if anchormen would force “moderates” to acknowledge that it’s not “moderate” to be on the side that suggests embryonic lives are disposable on demand, fair game, a regular scientific human omelette. That is also an extreme position. That is also boxed-in ideology.
Later, Hemmer added a mention of that other stem-cell bill: “But immediately after that vote yesterday, there was another vote taken up on this issue. It passed 431-1 in the House. And this pertains specifically to embryos [sic] from the umbilical cord. What is the substantial difference in this discussion in the House right now as to why this issue could go forward and the issue that you’re proposing right now could be shot down at the White House?” Hemmer risks looking like a dim-bulb anchorman here. Duh. Because no human life ends in cord-blood stem cell research.
Shays replied: “Well, because the opponents of embryonic stem cell research supported this, and we support both.”