Senators Harkin and Specter's Fuzzy "Facts"

During debate yesterday in the Senate, Senators Harkin and Specter apparently made assertions about stem cell research that, for lack of a better turn of phrase, could be called deceptive.

According to the Family Research Council, Senator Harkin claims that S.5 has "tighter" ethical guidelines than the President's policy on embryonic stem cell research. How Sen. Harkin thinks that deliberately killing human embryos somehow makes for better ethics is unclear.

Senator Specter claims that the 400,000 embryos currently frozen in storage will be destroyed--they should be used for research. However, a Rand Institute study determined that only 2.8 percent of the 400,000 embryos in storage have been slated for research. The rest are not scheduled for destruction or donation but are being saved by their parents. Rand also estimates that finding all of them useable and then using all of the 2.8 percent available would yield only 275 new cell lines. Far less than what proponents claim. Obviously the next step would be to create human embryos for the express purpose of destroying them for research. And if you think that's a stretch, the BIO lobby has been pushing for federal funds to create embryos for research since day one.

Give them an inch. . .