On July 19, President Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which had been passed by Congress. Bush said, “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others.”
The hypocrisy of this statement is remarkable. Only a few months ago, the Bush administration proposed cuts in Medicaid that would reduce prenatal care to working class women and increase the number of uninsured people in the United States.
|
The veto goes against public opinion that is overwhelmingly in support of stem cell research. A poll conducted for the Wall Street Journal reported that more than 60 percent of people agreed that “medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos” is “morally acceptable.”
According to the National Institute of Health, “Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.”
There is very strong evidence showing the potential of stem cells to treat a wide array of diseases from Parkinson’s disease to heart problems to spinal cord injuries.
Laboratory research has shown stem cells applied to rats with spinal cord injuries help restore the function of the spinal cord. Some initial applications in humans indicate stem cells can be used to regenerate damaged heart muscles and repair damaged spinal cords.
Political maneuvering and profit motive
Bush’s veto was, in part, a political move to shore up Bush’s extreme right-wing base in the Republican Party in preparation for the upcoming mid-term elections in November. Bush and his party are worried about the prospects of losing control of the House of Representatives in November. The war in Iraq, the criminal neglect of the government’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, attacks on workers’ rights, cutbacks to social programs and more have caused Bush’s popularity to plummet.
The Democrats, as co-managers of the capitalist government, are jointly to blame. But Bush, the leader of the Republican Party, is wildly unpopular and the Republicans want to remain the majority party in Congress so they can continue to allocate money to corporations of their choice and control policy decisions. To do this, Bush took the reigns and made a calculated political decision to solidify ultra-right support on this issue by making it part of the anti-abortion crusade.
Although the Bush administration has intensified its attacks on women’s abortion rights over the past six years, its opposition to stem cell research really has nothing to do with concern for human life. It is part of a reactionary social agenda attacking materialism and rationalism, like promoting “intelligent design” over the theory of evolution. These efforts at undermining science are part of an overall program to eliminate the rational planning of social services. Capitalists use religious mysticism as a way to accomplish these goals.
But there are differences on the stem cell issue even within Bush’s regime, and it is all about profits. Senate Majority Leader, and staunch Bush ally, Bill Frist opposed the veto. This was not out of concern for scientific advancement. Frist is a multi-millionaire based on his family’s ownership of Hospital Corporation of America. He sees the enormous profits to be made from the application of stem cell treatment to an array of diseases.
For Frist and all other capitalist politicians—Democrats and Republicans alike—and corporate owners, stem cells are simply a commodity. This is how all capitalists look at anything—as a way to make more profits. It doesn’t matter to them whether or not something can be good for humanity; what matters is whether or not it can be sold to generate massive sums of money.
Of course, the stem cell research bill should have passed easily; it would have been a step forward, however modest, for science. But even if the bill had passed, the benefits of expanded stem cell research would not have accrued primarily to the population as a whole. The capitalists would have made sure of that.
The use of stem cells is the social product of the collective work and knowledge of humanity. Scientific progress should not be hindered because of political maneuvering within the capitalist system. And stem cells should not be the private property of any individual or corporation to be used for personal or corporate gain.
