Mike Reagan Continues His Dad's Pro-Life Legacy
by Rusty Pugh and Jenni Parker
June 29, 2004
(AgapePress) - A bioethics expert with Focus on the Family says the son of Ronald Reagan is carrying on his father's pro-life legacy by speaking out against the destruction of human embryos for research.Michael Reagan recently wrote a column entitled "I'm With My Dad on Stem Cell Research," in which he echoes Ronald Reagan's unyielding support for the sanctity of all human life. The younger Mr. Reagan also accused the proponents of embryonic stem cell research, or ESCR, of promoting "junk science" and carrying out on a campaign of disinformation with their claims that such research is likely to bring about an end to Alzheimer's disease, the condition that ravaged his father's memory capacity in his latter years.
The issue has taken center stage for the Reagan family because of Nancy Reagan's public support for ESCR. The former first lady, along with other members of the family, has been very vocal in expressing the belief that the scientific community should be allowed to explore this controversial avenue in the search for a cure for Alzheimer's and other diseases.
But Carry Gordon Earll, bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family, says it is Michael Reagan who is "really being a voice for the true Reagan doctrine, his dad's legacy, which was pro-life and opposed to the destruction of human life for research." She notes that Ronald Reagan supported a human life amendment that assigned personhood to the unborn child from the moment of fertilization, and "under that view, there is no way that you could advocate the destruction of human life for research, which is what we're hearing from his widow, Nancy, and from his other children, Ron and Patty."
Moreover, Earll says the former president had a "de facto policy" within his administration that did not allow any federal funds to be used for the destruction of human embryos. Although Reagan's pro-life directives were given prior to the identification of embryonic stem cells in 1998, the bioethics expert notes, "His own policies would have prevented the type of research that these [promoters of ESCR] want to do in destroying embryos."
The bioethics analyst says although people like Nancy Reagan continue to crusade for this research, even though it has failed to produce a single cure for any disease, "Michael Reagan has really been a voice of continuing that true 'Reagan doctrine,' if you will, that is pro-life."
In his recent column, Michael Reagan points out that ESCR has been hyped by an aggressive public relations machine in the service of the biotech political agenda but has yet to yield its purported promise. On the other hand, he notes, adult stem cell research is "already paying dividends," uncomplicated by the moral problems associated with embryonic stem cell research.
