….he repeated it, as clearly the way he thinks. It was a jaw-dropper.

The television was on as a background thing during family
conversation, but we paid a little more attention to the interview Dr.
Sanjay Gupta was doing with former president Bill Clinton on CNN on the
topic of health care. The more interesting the interview got, the more
we listened. Americans should all have access to health care. How can
you disagree with that? Big pharmaceutical companies are doing
important and valuable work in medicine, but they have to be reined in.

And then toward the end of the hour, in the final minutes, Dr. Gupta
asked Clinton his thoughts about the new executive order opening up
embryonic stem cell research, and the controversy surrounding it. In
his long winded answer, Clinton made the point that a distinction
should be clearly drawn with embryos that had the chance at
fertilization and those that had no chance for that.

What? Embryos with no chance for fertilization….?!

And, Clinton said, even those who oppose that research see the use
of these frozen embryos with no chance otherwise to be a pro-life
response to the issue because they would be used for potential future
treatments for all sorts of debilitating and life-threatening diseases.

Embryonic stem cell research…pro-life?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat there looking at him with sincerity and
gravitas, nodding assent to these serious considerations. Seriously.

Never mind that there hasn’t been one inkling of success in
embryonic stem cell research. And that adult stem cells and chord blood
stem cells have produced great success and hope, serving the same
pluripotent purposes in a moral and ethical way that also pays the
benefit of curing now and offering greater possibility for the future
than embryonic research. Clinton represented those embryonic stem cells
as the highly prized resource for a gamut of cures.

So if you caught this in the above reference, you’ll be surprised to
hear that he said it again, and with emphasis. At the end of the
interview, Clinton said the use of embryonic stem cells is acceptable
‘if, absolutely no way, under no condition, is there any possibility
that these embryos will be fertilized to become human beings.’

This man was the president of the United States. His interviewer, a
neuro-surgeon, was considered by the current president of the United
States to be the Surgeon General. And yet neither seemed to reflect
awareness that in order to be an embryo, fertilization had to have already taken place.

And that an embryo is already an individual, unique, separate, whole and complete human being in early development.

This is such a learning moment….