Conservative-Yes, Compassionate-No

We may get to see another wonderful example of President Bush's compassionate conservatism, since Karl Rove stated that he is likely to veto a bill to expand federal funding of stem cell research. This is just another obvious move to shore up President Bush's religious conservative base. "We were all an embryo at one point, and we ought to as a society be very careful about being callous about the wanton destruction of embryos, of life," Rove said. He said research shows "we have far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells." It is offensive to me that this bunch would have the nerve to talk about the wanton destruction of life given the American soldiers and innocent Iraqis killed in the ill-advised, ill-conceived war in Iraq. I also wonder when Karl Rove picked up his M.D. or Ph.D. in order to give us his opinion on the use of adult versus embryonic stem cells. In fact, the National Institutes of Health state that human embryonic stem cells are thought to have greater developmental potential than adult stem cells. In my view, compassion for one's fellow man and the alleviation or elimination of suffering should be one of the prime goals of any religion. How can anyone with any shred of human decency or feeling trample on the hope of those suffering from diseases that may be cured through stem cell research. Tell your Senators to support the bill. Hopefully, President Bush won't have the guts to veto it.