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March 09, 2009
Panel on Obama's Stem Cell Order
Special Report With Bret Baier(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TEXAS: The president would be wiser to pursue a policy to look into more and invest more into adult stem cell research as well as cord blood stem cell research which, I think, would be more productive in the long run and less divisive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, HOST: President Obama [Monday] signed an order allowing federal taxpayer dollars to fund expanded embryonic stem cell research, reversing one of former President Bush's policies -- viewed by some in the scientific field as blocking.
However, there is a lot of controversy about what exactly happened under President Bush's administration and what is happening after today's signing of the order.
Let's bring in our panel: Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard; Kirsten Powers, columnist at The New York Post, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.
Charles, first of all, let's straighten out what happened and what happened today.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: What Obama is doing is he's expanding the range of the federal funding of research involving embryonic stem cells. He is allowing the use of embryos that were created in fertility clinics and are not going to be used anymore.
Now, I supported that when I was on the president's council of bioethics and in my writing, which I suppose is why the White House invited me to the signing ceremony.
But I declined for three reasons. One is the president has left open the cloning of human embryos in order to destroy them in experiments. Secondly, he leaves open the creation of human embryos entirely for the purpose of research and experimentation.
And thirdly, he had a memorandum which he signed in which he talks about restoring the scientific integrity in government decisions, which was is an outrageous attack on Bush.
I disagreed with where Bush ended up drawing the line on permissible research, but he gave in August of 2001 the single most morally serious presidential speech on medical ethics ever given and Obama did not, even though I agree on where -- I agree more on where he ended up. So I think it was disrespectful. And in pretending, as Obama did, that there's never a conflict between ethics and science, he was wrong.
I suspect that they're not going to be asking me to any more signing ceremonies in the future.
BAIER: Kirsten?
KIRSTEN POWERS, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK POST: It was a rebuke of George Bush. That was very clear.
And I think what he said was very right, that Obama sort of pretends that there if there is a clash between science and values, he is going to err on the side of science, as if we don't ever consider maybe ethics or, you know, our values on the other side, and that that isn't a lesson that we should value.
He also talks about putting science before politics, where this actually seems to be a very political decision from where I'm sitting. It's something that the base is very excited about.
And I think that the reality is the debate has moved -- science has moved a lot further than the debate, and we know more than we knew when it started. For example, adult stem cells, we can do a lot more with them than we could when this debate started. There is a lot of research being done with the placenta.
So this is, really, sort of, to me, a political move to satisfy people who really wanted this to happen, and blame George Bush, essentially, for people who are paralyzed or suffering from Alzheimer's.
BAIER: Fred?
FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Absolutely. It was a very political decision. President Obama always tries to make his decisions sound as if he is rising above mere politics that the rest of here are chatting about and embracing something on a higher plane. In this case, sound science was what he said dictated this.
But, as Charles pointed out, when you got to the serious moral choice here about cloning, he ducked it and said Congress will have to act.
To be really serious about dealing with this issue, then he ought to deal with that, because that's the big issue now. The big issue is not embryonic stem cell research, though I oppose it, because where has the progress been made?
And I think Charles knows more about this than I do and he can correct me if I'm wrong, and I think Kirsten does too, that the great progress that's been made in recent years has been in non-embryonic stem cell research, and it hasn't been because of the inability to get embryonic stem cells. It's just that that's been a more fruitful area where science has gone.
I want to point out one other thing, because President Obama does this all the time and Charles referred to it. It's the straw man he uses.
He is always attacking those who would have government do nothing, you know, to help the economy. The straw man here is the one where he says he is standing firmly against those who would falsify or hide or somehow distort science or something like that. Nobody was doing that.
BAIER: Charles, what about this premise that the tough decisions he is really leaving to Congress here?
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, he will. And I think what he is asking Congress to do is to decide whether it's going to allow all kinds of experimentation on human embryos, which would be a radical step.
There was a law in Congress passed the mid-'90s which outlawed actual experimentation on the embryo with federal funds. So that is going to be open now and Obama in not taking a stance is taking a stance.
The man who invented embryonic stem cells, a scientist by the name of Thompson, has said recently that if you haven't had any moral qualms about it, you haven't thought about it enough. And it looks as if Obama hasn't thought about it a lot.
