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is full of little annoyances — like when Christine Todd Whitman
reminded us — yet again — that she is pro-
abortion
on Crossfire last week. But, at the end of the day, who really
cares what the EPA administrator thinks about abortion? More worrying
is the case of Tommy Thompson.
Ever since he was named Health and Human Services Secretary, Thompson
has addled the wits of pro-lifers, despite knee-jerk rhetoric from
feminists warning that he would turn back the clock on women's abortion
rights. So far, he's done exactly what the anti-abortion activists
had feared: He's spoken his mind.
In the first weeks of his tenure, Secretary Thompson suggested that
although he was personally in favor of embryonic stem-cell research,
he knew his place and would make the president's position his department's
policy. Just last week he told the Associated Press that he had
in his short time in office already "learned the hard way" that
as a Cabinet officer "you're working for the president and not for
yourself."
But at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Tuesday, the former
Wisconsin governor said to Sen. Gordon Smith, "I am troubled, as
you probably are, by the law. I know Congress is trying to change
the law, but there is a law on the books that is troublesome" —
referring to the federal ban on the federal funding of embryonic
stem-cell research.
The law that Secretary Thompson is troubled by only bans federal
funding — private money is still freely available to sponsor
such research. Stem-cell research, as has been widely reported,
is not stunted by the ban. The Secretary of Health and Human Services
should know this.
Thompson's staff quickly recanted, saying that the secretary "meant
to deliver precisely the opposite message." So, are we to believe
he can't read his staffers' talking points on the most controversial
issue under his stewardship? Whatever his problem, he had better
clear it up, or the president ought to rethink his HHS choice.
If Tommy Thompson truly understood that he is serving at the pleasure
of the president, he might take the time to ponder the administration's
position on stem-cell research, which has always been perfectly
clear.
President Bush, like Gordon Smith, who prompted the secretary's
latest blunder, wants to help the living. Bush supports the federal
funding of adult stem-cell research, which, as numerous published
scientific reports have suggested, offers more promising treatments
for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's than the alternative--using
cells obtained by killing human embryos.
If Secretary Thompson still thinks cells obtained from killing unborn
children is the way to go, he ought to flip through Thursday's New
York Times.
According to the most recent issue of the New England Journal
of Medicine, using fetal cells to treat Parkinson's is a kind
of medical shell game, with sometimes nightmarish results.
In a controlled study where cells from aborted fetuses were implanted
into the brains of Parkinson's disease sufferers, "disastrous side
effects" ensued. Doctors involved in the study report that while
older patients showed no improvement, younger patients were left
with freakish side effects. According to Dr. Paul E. Greene, a neurologist
at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, "They
chew constantly, their fingers go up and down, their wrists flex
and distend." Patients "also writhe and twist, jerk their heads,
fling their arms about," the New York Times reports.
The same medical and patients' groups who once claimed fetal tissue
would cure all ills are now wringing their and saying embryonic
stem cells will prove the magic bullet. Before Secretary Thompson
believes their hype, he ought to talk to the human guinea pigs for
fetal tissue-research.
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