Top Stories of 2004: Ron Reagan's DNC Comments Rile Pro-Lifers
by Jody Brown
December 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - Pro-life and pro-family groups are up in arms over comments made Tuesday night in Boston in support of embryonic stem-cell research. The uproar is not so much because the claims broke any new ground, but because they were uttered by the son of the late President Ronald Reagan -- who was staunchly pro-life and who, according to many defenders of the unborn, clearly would have opposed the harvesting of stem cells from unborn children.Ron Reagan, Jr., son of the 40th president, who died in early June from complications due to Alzheimer's, spoke to delegates at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Boston on a topic he said should have nothing to do with partisanship: embryonic stem-cell research. "There are those who would stand in the way of this remarkable future, who would deny the federal funding so crucial to basic research," he stated.
But Reagan, standing before thousands of Democrats in Boston's Fleet Center, crossed over the partisan line himself when he urged his audience: "Whatever else you do come November 2 ... please, cast a vote for embryonic stem-cell research."
Reagan's plea was tantamount to an endorsement of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who is expected to take on the mantle of the Democratic Party this week. As pointed out by LifeNews.com, President Bush has said federal funds should not be used to back research that destroys human lives -- something necessary for embryonic stem-cell research; whereas Kerry has said one of the first things he would do upon moving into the Oval Office would be to overturn Bush's policy and make taxpayer money available to fund the unproven research.
For quite some time, pro-life groups across the U.S. have said the "remarkable future" that Reagan alluded to is practically non-existent. They point out the research using embryonic stem cells has not only failed to produce any known cure for disease, but in fact has causes life-threatening tumors in lab animals. In contrast, research employing stem cells from adults, as well as from placentas and umbilical cord blood, has resulted in cures -- a fact often neglected by those promoting embryonic stem-cell research.
Pro-Lifers' Reactions
Reaction to Reagan's comments was strong and swift. Judie Brown, president of American Life League (ALL), says the position taken by the late president's son is "deceptive and erroneous," his actions "disingenuous," and his statements "wrong -- dead wrong."
"The ends, no matter how well-intentioned, can never justify the means. It is never acceptable to end an innocent human being's life. The acquisition of human embryonic stem cells does exactly that," Brown says.
The ALL leader says the younger Reagan's "fanciful claims" are nothing more than "science fiction designed to mislead Americans into accepting the utilitarian mindset that one life is more important than another."
A bioethics analyst with Focus on the Family could not agree more. Carrie Gordon Earll says claims such as those touted by Reagan are "misleading at best and unethical at worst." It is "barbaric and unnecessary," she says, to harvest stem cells from unborn babies.
"While adult stem cells are showing great promise in being used to develop therapies," Earll says, "embryonic stem cells have shown just the opposite." The federal government, she says, should never be in the business of financing what she describes as the "calculated destruction" of unborn children.
A Disguised 'Pro-Cloning' Speech?
Another pro-family lobby group, the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, says Reagan's talk at the DNC was a "pro-cloning" message disguised behind a research label. Dr. Janice Crouse of CWALAC notes that Reagan neglected to explain how scientists would obtain the raw materials necessary to create the clones to accommodate all the diseases he claims could be cured.
"The eggs he spoke of must come from women -- women who would have to be injected with potent drugs to release numerous eggs, and the surgically invaded to remove the eggs," Crouse explains. "Such treatment toward women at the insistence of scientific curiosity and medical research falls short of the dignity and respect women deserve."
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Tony Perkins |
An Open Door
And finally, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC) wonders why the Republican Party is giving the Democrats a "free ride" when it comes to misinforming the public about stem-cell research. He asks: "Why have [Republicans] not jumped at the chance to tout the successes of adult stem-cell research, which has thus far produced treatments for more than 40 medical problems while embryonic research has produced none?"Perkins suggests that an effective ploy for the GOP would be to invite the late President Reagan's other son, Michael, to address their national convention next month in New York City. Michael Reagan, says Perkins, could reiterate the truth about the former chief executive -- "that he was unabashedly pro-life, believing that life begins at conception."
And the FRC president says Ron Reagan's comments -- along with those by earlier speakers at the DNC and some yet to come -- set the stage for the Republican Party to make a clear distinction for voters. "The DNC has given the GOP a golden opportunity to sharply contrast the DNC's anti-family agenda," Perkins says, explaining that can be done by prominently featuring pro-family speakers throughout the Republican National Convention. Perkins, however, has his doubts as to whether that will happen.
