Mass. governor says stem-cell research "Orwellian"

[FVZA_Colonel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060901/hl_nm/stemcell_research_dc



Mass. governor says stem-cell research "Orwellian"
Fri Sep 1, 12:10 PM ET

BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, said on Thursday his administration's new restrictions on stem cell research are aimed at heading off an "Orwellian" future.

The state's Department of Public Health this week issued regulations banning the creation of embryos for research purposes. Scientists say stem cell research could lead to breakthroughs in treatments for diseases including cancer. But the issue has become ethically and politically volatile because extracting the cells entails destruction of an embryo.

"I believe it crosses a very bright moral line to take sperm and eggs in the laboratory and start creating human life," Romney told reporters. "It is Orwellian in its scope. In laboratories you could have trays of new embryos being created."

Romney spoke a week after a Massachusetts company, Advanced Cell Technology, said it had developed a way to make human embryonic stem cells without harming the original embryo, a finding it said could dispel ethical objections.

[LostInAnomie]

1. Well I'll sleep better knowing that a mass of undifferentiated cells...

... are safe while thousands are dying from potentially curable diseases.

Praise Jee-zus!

[Erika]

2. Romney as a Mormon man can morally deny his wife heaven

based on his wants. He ought to keep his Orwellian talk to himself and his twisted religious morality.

[Tom Joad]

3. This was posted earlier. He is confusing Huxley's "Brave New

World" with the writer of 1984. Hopefully stem cell research will advance quick enough to save this guy from complete alzheimers.

[silverweb]

5. LOL

I took too long posting, I see. :D

[silverweb]

4. Romney needs to get his literary references straight.

There's nothing "orwellian" about stem cell research. However, it could be called "huxleyan," since it was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World that dabbled in reproductive technologies and other such sins, not Orwell's books.

I mean, really now, Governor. You don't want to be accused of spreading literary confusion, do you?

:eyes:

[leesa]

12. He's probably been busy reading Shakespeares too, cut him some slack.

Definitely an Epsilon...

[Kutjara]

6. He made an honest mistake.

Huxlian (to coin a term) could be used to refer to mankind's manipulation of the species for specific ends.

Orwellian refers to the government we currently possess.

It's easy to see that he spends so much time working to bring about the latter, he's confused it with the former.

[Cronus Protagonist]

13. Yup, this is more Huxlian (nice coinage) than Orwellian

To be fair to the authors, neither wished their utopias on the public, but merely undertook to examine possible futures for the world based on many factors.

It's not like Orwell wanted to see the Big Brother apparatus with everything politicized or that Huxley wanted to see eugenincs, pre-selection and fetal conditioning, as you know, but others may not be so well aware, so I thought I'd drop in my nickel in support.





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[Devlzown]

7. I'd like to ask him how he feels about

research involving animals. Unlike embryos, they actually feel pain.

[OneBlueSky]

8. what's Orwellian is the governor of Massachusetts . . .

and the Rethuglican party he represents . . . 1984 is upon us . . .

[Lasher]

9. Didn't he describe in vitro fertilization?

"I believe it crosses a very bright moral line to take sperm and eggs in the laboratory and start creating human life."

Yup, I'm pretty sure that's how IVF works. And leftover embryos are flushed down the toilet. Which is OK with assholes like Romney, just as long as they are never used for research.

What a hypocrite.

[rodeodance]

10. People with pee sized moral brains denying others a chance at a quality

life.

[MasonJar]

11. Orwell never wrote on this subject, as far as I know. Perhaps he

is thinking of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I'll tell you, Mitt, what is Orwellian, your opening your big fat mouth to keep people from getting treatment via scientific research...you may have heard of it ... BIG BROTHER-itis.

[Danmel]

14. I think he's confusing Orwell with Huxley

and 1984 with "Brave New World"

As far as I call tell, stem cell research isn't proposed to be used to develop a caste system, it is being proposed to cure disease. What about that does he not understand?