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Politics of the Embryo War |
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Who Is Randolfe H. Wicker?
On April 10, 2002 when George W. Bush, spoke at a White House Rose Garden press conference, ceremoniously declaring his opposition to both therapeutic and reproductive cloning, Randolfe Wicker was immediately seen on MSNBC debating-over 11 memorable minutes--with a representative of The Catholic League, a Mr. Patrick Scully who suffered a noticeable defeat as Wicker critiqued his cloningphobia. Appearing as cloning's best-informed advocate last week, Wicker discussed Mr. Bush and cloningphobia with MSNBC's Alan Keyes. They were joined by a cloningphobic representative from Concerned Women for America. It was clear that Randolfe Wicker felt wholly at ease, however, in his well-earned role as cloning's most effective spokesperson. Here follow his incisive thoughts about the politics of the embryo war:
Jack Nichols, Senior Editor, POLITICS of the EMBRYO WAR By Randolfe H. Wicker
The politics of cloning, embryo politics, continued to make the strangest of bedfellows. In the political world, embryos, stem cell research and cloning are "hot button" issues. They rank right up there with Atomic Power, environmental degradation and tax cuts. President Bush secured his party's nomination with the support of religious conservatives. He pledged to them that he "would not support the destruction of human life". That meant he'd oppose funding for groups supporting abortion or the destruction of embryos. In August 2001, with his approval rating hovering at barely 50%, President Bush faced the first defining moment of his Presidency. He had to take a position regarding Federal funding of stem cell research. This was problematic. The overwhelming majority of Americans supported stem cell research. However, stem cells were made by chopping up embryos to create stem cell cultures. President Bush's core supporters viewed this as "destroying human life". Bush finessed this first battle in the "embryo war" by deciding to support research only on existing stem cell lines. By refusing to support the creation of new stem cell cultures, he would redeem his pledge to respect human life. President Bush's speech, read from a teleprompter, outlined every argument for and against stem cell research. Every listener heard President Bush state his or her position regarding the issue. Finally, Bush came down, in the narrowest way possible, in favor of limited stem cell research. Even that tepid step outraged some of his fundamentalist supporters. They believed using stem cell cultures already created through the destruction of embryos was the moral equivalent of grave robbing. The events of September 11th caused President Bush's approval rating to soar. His presidency was no longer precarious. He could more openly cater to his core supporters on the Christian Right. They wanted all cloning outlawed. They wanted the technology itself banned. They wanted any therapies developed outside the country using cloning technology to be prohibited.
In the second battle of the Embryo War, Right-To-Life Democrats supported the total cloning ban and defeated the coalition of moderate Republicans and most Democrats who believed therapeutic cloning should be allowed to proceed in the private sector. These events set the stage and framed the cloning debate now playing itself out in the United States Senate. Emboldened by their victory in the House, Republican Conservatives supported a total ban on both reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning proposed by Senator Brownback of Kansas. The biotech industry and swarms of patient advocacy groups descended on Washington for what promised to be another key and pivotal battle in the Embryo War. They wanted promising stem cell research, much of which required the cloning of embryos and creation of stem cell cultures, to go forward. The Right-To-Life lobby and Christian Fundamentalist groups targeted key states with close upcoming Senate races and launched radio and television advertising campaigns aimed at swaying public opinion Biotech firms and Cures Now, a nonprofit group recently founded by entertainment industry executives, fought back with their own campaign. Their ads resurrected Harry and Louise, the worrywart couple that helped defeat President Clinton's health-care overhaul plan. This time, Harry and Louise, whom Republicans loved and whom Democrats had condemned as distorters of the health care issue, would be working with a largely Democratic Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research.
The new legislation would outlaw placing any cloned embryo into a woman's womb, even into an artificial womb. The research would have to be reviewed and approved by a professional peer review board before being undertaken. Senator Hatch, a Mormon, did not share the Roman Catholic and Fundamentalist perspective of many of those who considered themselves to be Right-To-Life. Sen. Hatch declared that his concept of being Right-To-Life included helping the living. He had decided life didn't begin in a Petri dish but when an embryo attached itself to a womb's wall and actually had a chance at life. With victory apparently slipping from their grasp, Roman Catholic spokesmen and most Right-To-Life spokespeople vented rage at their former ally. "His reasoning is morally vacuous and scientifically inaccurate," said Ken Connor, president of the family Research Council, a conservative think tank. "Under this bill, what President Bush called embryo farms will spring up and flourish," said Douglas Johnson, spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee. Former President Gerald Ford joined Senator Hatch in supporting such research. They preferred to say they were supporting regenerative medicine rather than using the term human cloning. "At the core of my support for regenerative medical research is my belief that human life requires and begins in a mother's nurturing womb," Hatch explained, noting that in the research allowed under the new Kennedy-Hatch bill "the egg, with its nucleus removed, is never fertilized with sperm…so there is no chance of birth." Such declarations would not mollify Alan Keyes, a former Republican presidential candidate closely identified with the Right-to-Life wing of the Republican Party. "Orrin Hatch has mandated abortion in cloning research!" Keyes declared while hosting a debate on his nationally televised show on MSNBC. "He has made it a criminal offence to bring embryos to term." Keyes, hewing to the traditional Right-to-Life viewpoint that every embryo was, in fact, a human life, saw therapeutic cloning as opening a Pandora's box of philosophical problems for those sharing his views. If we increase human happiness by cloning an embryo, Keyes mused, why not bring it to term? Hatch has taken a step that will make the next step unavoidable. Indeed, the very field of battle seemed to be changing in the Embryo Wars. Many Right-to-Life groups urge the adoption of frozen embryos. Indeed, some children who had resulted from such embryo adoptions were paraded before Congress during the first debate about allowing stem cell research. Look at these children, those opposing stem cell research argued, they were once embryos just like the ones you now want to destroy to create stem cell cultures! Once embryos commenced to be produced for the purpose of creating stem cell cultures, would the strange ever-shifting politics of the Embryo War lead an alliance between Right-to-Life advocates and those supporting reproductive cloning? Nothing seems impossible in the politics of the Embryo War. Randolfe H. Wicker can be reached at: r.wicker@verizon.net |
Randolfe Wicker being interviewed by Steve Kroft for 60 Minutes
Sen. Edward Kennedy: Teaming up with conservative Sen. Orrin Hatch on a pro-cloning bill now in the Senate 
Rep. Dave Weldon: Clone Ranger 
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