by Mario Hernandez
Daily Lobo columnist
The streak has ended.
No, you didn't miss anything on ESPN, and no sports statistic came crumbling to the ground - all of this excitement took place on C-SPAN. I am speaking, of course, of President Bush's streak of consecutively signed congressional bills.
This streak ends at an impressive 1,129 without one single veto, leaving one to ask, what bill could possibly cause Bush to unsheathe his mighty pen? Deficit-inflating appropriations measures? Terrible and fiscally ruinous tax cuts? Legislation stuffed with special interest provisions and pork? No, no, and no. The answer is a bill overturning the Bush-imposed ban on stem cell research.
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While this leaves the far-right Christian voting base happy, the people here on Earth know the real-world implications this can have. This veto knocks the wind out of promising biomedical research that could help produce cures and treatments for many neurological illnesses such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, as well as spinal cord injuries.
This veto comes in spite of surprising support from the Republican majority. The bill's chief sponsor is Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, who heads the Senate subcommittee that controls federal financing for medical research. The bill also claims the support of far-right seat holders such as Senate GOP Leader Bill Frist and Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah. It even has the backing of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and fellow Republican Nancy Reagan.
Why, then, did Bush deny his friends the approval of this bill?
"The simple answer is he thinks murder is wrong," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research."
When Bush imposed the ban his first year in office, he cited a few reasons for doing so. His administration argued that "adult stem cell research was just as fruitful as the embryonic avenues" and "existing stem cell lines were adequate for research purposes." Both of these statements have turned out to be factually incorrect. That's why a number of conservative Republicans, including Frist and Hatch, have reversed their positions and no longer defend the Bush ban.
"Allowing federal funding for the extraction of stem cells from frozen embryos would subsidize the destruction of human life," the administration says. Or could it perhaps save millions of actual people and provide hope for those suffering with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and other debilitating diseases?
The Bush administration may be putting a symbolic foot down, but real-world woes are attached. It doesn't just end with the anguish and stress of millions of Americans and their families who pray every day for cures - America's competitive edge in biomedical research, the key to one of the biggest economic sectors of this century, is also put in jeopardy by this policy. Some states, including California and New Jersey, have recognized this and have even come up with bills of their own to fund stem cell research.
Rhode Island Democrat James R. Langevin was paralyzed at age 16 after a gun accidentally discharged in a police station and severed his spinal cord. He said he supported the embryonic stem cell legislation despite being opposed to abortion.
"My life as a quadriplegic is certainly filled with challenges and obstacles," he said. "It's motivated me to help create a culture that values and protects life from its beginning to its end. For me, being pro-life also means fighting for policies that will eliminate pain and suffering and help people enjoy longer, healthier lives. And to me, support for embryonic stem cell research is entirely consistent with that position."
Let's hope we start putting some importance on the lives of the living.
