Hyperbole of the Week

The unabashed exaggeration surrounding embryonic stem cell research never ceases to amaze me. Especially when it comes from our elected officials who should know better.

Democratic congresswoman Diana DeGette has written a book called Sex, Science and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason in which I am sure is all the tired rhetoric about how George Bush is ruining the world. (DeGette's daughter was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when she was 4 years old.) It sounds like I am the on hyperbolizing until you read this quote from Rep. DeGette:

"That's why it angers me to think of George W. Bush sitting up there in the White House, deciding that the welfare of a bunch of frozen embryonic cells is somehow more important than the welfare of my child -- or any child for that matter," DeGette writes. "There are thousands and thousands of parents just like me, whose kids have diabetes or cancer or muscular dystrophy, who feel the same way; and, there are thousands and thousands of adult children whose parents have Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or a stroke. Together we're counting on those embryos to see us through and take some of that weight off our shoulders and set our world right once again."

Oh boy where do I start:

1. The "cells" of note here are not just "cells." They are EMBRYOS. Complete human organisms that no one thinks are MORE inmportant than DeGette's daughter. They need to be valued the SAME as all human organisms no matter what stage of development. Which means we do not rip them open while they are still alive and harvest the parts we are interested in.

2. Adult stem cells are already producing the insulin her daughter needs. There are no human trials even underway with embryonic stem cells for diabetes.

3. So if DeGette is "counting on those embryos to see us through" she is going to be waiting a VERY long time. Possibly decades.

4. The fact that she thinks that ripping open frozen human embryos is going to "set our world right once again" just shows that she is the one who needs a dose of reason. Reality check please.