Bob Ehrlich Quotes
I support stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research.
Ehrlich, Robert L. "Veto of Senate Bill 144 / House Bill 18." Office of the Governor, 27 May 2005.
When couples use in vitro fertilization to have children, they usually produce several fertilized embryos one of which is implanted into the womb of the mother. The other embryos can produce stem cells which are cells that can grow into any other kind of cell—brain cells, bone, cells, kidney cells, stc. Therefore they have the most promise for medical research. However, some people regard the embryos as human beings at an early stage of development and see the embryos as life. For them the notion of using that “life” for medical research where a human being will not be produced but instead a medicine or replacement cells for a sick person crosses a moral line of what is proper for a life form. Others observe that the embryos are kept alive in freezers and will be thrown away if not needed so why not use them to help mankind. At the other extreme some are opposed to allowing in vitro fertilization to begin with, but there have been over a million people born with this technique to couples who otherwise would not have been able to have children.
Most of the biological scientists and research physicians had good reason to believe that Fetal Stem Cell research could have large payoff in terms of regenerating organs and other therapies. However, there was a very passionate minority who wanted it made illegal to do research with fetal stem cells. They argued that if the research was very successful, and fetal stem cells could be used to grow new healthy organs, abortions to “harvest” the fetal stem cells would increase. There were other fundamentalists who opposed doing any kind of research in creating life or organs. Only God may create life they argue. Specter, although aa Republican whose party mostly opposed Stem Cell Research did not believe that the religious views of some Americans shuld revent others from longer life and the benfit of medical research. However, conservatives of his party remembered and ousted him aat the Primary Election even though as a Republican he could easily win the state election of ll the citizens.
George W. Bush followed his deeply held religious belief and that of a small, but controlling religious fundamentalist segment of the Republican Party and banned Federal funding of scientific research that involved fetal stem cells. The thinking of the religious fundamentalist was that if fetal stem cell research were to be extensive there might be a demand for the fetal cells which could come from abortion. This might create more abortions and it would mean that something good might result from a terrible evil—an abortion. This in turn might make abortion less terrible for some people and produce some moral ambiguity. At the same time there are tens of thousands of fertilized embryos available from in vitro fertilization procedures where extras are produced but usually not needed and often are disposed of as waste. However, these fundamentalists do not want to even allow those to be used. Hence, the “insanity” characterization which is more accurately illogicality.
Robert Leroy Ehrlich Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 60th Governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. A Republican, Ehrlich represented Maryland's 2nd Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. Prior to that, he was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
