Bush did more damage to the nation's scientific prowess than holding up stem cell research. He promoted evangelical agenda, over science, he politicized the scientific process, he put political hacks in jobs that should be held by trained professionals, and he edited science reports to reflect his political and religious agenda.
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I am not a backer of W, but it is unfair to say that he stood in the way of science. By denying government funding, he did not stop research. Research could continue if funding was avaliable elsewhere. It was. The research continued.
James Hanson said in public on countless occasions that he was being muzzled by the administration. If he was being muzzled, how did we know of the restraint that he suffered? Best example of not being muzzled in the recent political past.
Bush's stand on stem cell research is a reflection of his belief of when life begins. Under American Law, Constitutionally, a citizen is nothing until he is born. Unborn is therefore not a citizen and has no rights. This is a legal thing. Morality is not on this same page. If a zygot and the succeeding stages of pre-natal development will certainly become a person if not acted upon by outside influence, can we not assume that this is a person?
Scott Peterson's jail sentence says that we can. This conviction has become American Law.
If Scott Peterson can be convicted of murder in the death of the unborn son of his murdered wife, does not some doubt exist, under law, that an unborn person is a person? If this is accepted, and apparently it has been, we are not at this point talking about a scientific issue, but rather one of timing.
Megele experimented on human beings. Bush attempted to stop experimentation on what he saw as human beings. Bush is charachterized as a monster and yet if someone had stopped Mengele, that someone would be a hero.
There are at least two standards in use here.
Regarding the political hacks, nothing new here and nothing to argue about. Always has happened, always will. I cringe as often watching the obama appointees as i cringed watching the Bush appointees. They're all doing a heck of a job!