massacre of innocents

George W Bush, has, to his credit never once used his Presidential veto. Ronald Reagan used it 78 times and Mr Bill Clinton dabbled in the dark art on 37 occasions. Bush has of course threatened to use the veto no less than 141 times and as such has helped quash legislation before it could even get that far, but that’s beside the point. Bush has some very loyal Republicans behind him.

Until now, that is. For now, good old W is going to have to use that veto to prevent the state from funding research into human stem cells. This, he argues is simply a matter of morals. Science must not progress by taking something that is alive and making it not so. Just as his conscience would rather all redneck hicks kept their unwanted and unplanned children, so Bush disagrees with this new research. Research which could of course cure hundreds of currently fatal diseases. Stem cells potentially allow for the growing of entirely new and healthy organs from scratch, including the otherwise irreplaceable spinal cord tissue, which would make long-term paralysis a thing of the past. Superman himself could have been saved with such wizardry. It is this potential that has in fact secured the support of a majority of the US public and indeed many Republicans (except those firmly in the pay of religious bigots). At the forefront of the pro research group is a man who is shaping up to be my favourite heir to bush. Senator John McCain. Yes, he is a Republican, but he seems to be making all the right moves and in the absence of any organisational skills whatsoever on behalf of the Democrats the world could do a lot worse than McCain.

Now my position on this is all too clear. I do not care how much unborn biological mush needs to be mutated. Lets do it. If we can end human suffering by ending what is in reality only the ‘potential’ for human life, not human consciousness. Do it.

Yet I am not all that bothered about the veto. In fact, I’m rather pleased about it. Firstly it does not prevent stem cell research in the US, only the allocation of federal funding for that purpose. Some states, like California, have already said they will independently provide funding and private charities and companies are free to follow suit. Secondly, while god’s chosen children in America may now be free from guilt, it does provide a massive opportunity to other countries. No matter who bans this sort of research, it is going to happen somewhere and at sometime. America may as well have put itself at the forefront of this developing industry. But it has chosen not to. Europe, free from the shackles of religious lobby groups, should take up its cause.