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Editorial: Bush allows right wing to veto health of millions It was a made-for-TV moment, designed to mollify the GOP's far-right base and tug at the heartstrings of everyone else. There was President Bush, surrounded by children he calls "snowflakes," wielding his veto pen for the first time after signing 1,130 bills into law. He used it to block a bipartisan measure -- in which Wisconsin has an enormous stake -- that would have expanded embryonic stem cell research. The bill only would have allowed federally funded research to be conducted on embryos destined for the trash can -- those frozen and left over at in-vitro fertilization clinics. About 400,000 such embryos exist. The snowflakes were there to illustrate Bush's contention that even those embryos represent life; a couple of hundred surplus embryos have been adopted, implanted in their adoptive mothers and born naturally as "snowflakes." If only the stage had been a little bit bigger, it could have included some of the people who might be helped by embryonic stem cell research, too. Bush could have surrounded himself, for example, with the 21 million Americans who suffer from diabetes. Or the 4 million -- expected to triple within 20 years -- who are dying slow deaths with Alzheimer's disease. Then he could have jammed in the 1 million Americans with Parkinson's disease. And those with spinal cord injuries. They're not as cute and cuddly as cooing infants, but they're the real people whose futures also were vetoed Wednesday. Embryonic stem cells are the precursor cells to almost every tissue in the body. Scientists say they hold the best promise for curing diabetes, Alzheimer's and other debilitating or fatal illnesses. The president and the right wing of his party, though, view the research as akin to murder. "This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush said at the veto ceremony. Certainly science and medicine must be tempered by ethics. But to the 70 percent of Americans who support this research, the ethical imperatives are clear. Real human beings who are suffering and dying need help. That help could be found in the frozen cells scheduled to be discarded. "The American Diabetes Association is committed to finding a cure for this disease, and we support the exploration of every ethical avenue of research," said ADA Chairman Lawrence T. Smith, who has a daughter with type 1 diabetes. "The most respected scientists in our field view human embryonic stem cells as an area of research that must be explored. Under the current restrictions, this is not happening on the scale necessary to pursue lifesaving cures." Some of those respected scientists to whom Smith refers are right here in our state, where researchers at the University of Wisconsin were the first to isolate embryonic stem cells and Gov. Jim Doyle twice has vetoed legislation that would have restricted research. Scientists such as UW-Madison professor of neurology Ian Duncan said Bush's veto threatens their work even as government-funded stem cell research thrives in California and in other countries. Duncan is trying to use stem cells to repair diseased tissue in patients with multiple sclerosis. And that, of course, is how the veto hits us all where we live. A few weeks ago, we told the story in this column of Wausau hairdresser Rhonda Zick, who has struggled with MS for several years. She represents the thousands of patients in central Wisconsin -- and the people who love them -- who might be helped through stem cell research. If President Bush wants to preserve one of the lives frozen in a clinic's nitrogen tank, he and his wife should adopt a snowflake. They shouldn't allow a small minority of political supporters to hold hostage a policy supported by most Americans -- a policy that holds promise for Zick and millions of others. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn