Ambushing the American Public

January 3, 2007

In campaign commercials in 2006, Democrats and some Republicans boasted of their support for embryonic stem cell research as a way to find treatments for a wide range of diseases. Advocates of such research say that, despite gains in the elections, they still do not have the votes to override a veto. They are working with Senate allies on a plan to attach the stem cell bill to unrelated legislation that Mr. Bush would feel obliged to sign.
— New York Times

The stem cell research lobby appears increasingly to be adopting a tactic of guerilla warfare: ambushing the American public for dollars to support ethically dubious endeavors. Such tactics have been effective in the past. Consider New Jersey’s “anti-cloning” bill, signed into effect in 2004. The only cloning that legislation outlawed was the live birth of a cloned infant. Cloning, known under its scientific name of “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” was not outlawed at all; in fact, it was endorsed. Missouri recently passed, by a narrow majority, a constitutional amendment to conduct embryonic stem cell research. One of the tactics used was to include a short description, instead of the nearly 2,000 words of the bill, on the ballot. Had the voters had access to the full amendment, it is not clear at all that such would have passed. Now the New York Times reports that a stem cell research bill may be attached by the new Congress to an unrelated bill that President Bush will “feel obliged to sign.” On a question of this magnitude, a full public debate needs to take place; this Trojan horse needs to be checked at the city gate.