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the Stem Cell Page time and ignorance are the enemies |
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Sam Brownback: An Anti-Cures Presidential Bid |
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December 11, 2006
Almost everyone in the Pro-Cures community knows the name Sam Brownback. The mention of his name sends chills down the spine and causes eyes to roll. Few legislators bear the negative impact of Brownback when it comes to embryonic stem cell research. To say he opposes it is like saying Einstein could do a little arithmetic.
Brownback, a Kansas Republican, subscribes to the most right-wing, religious-based doctrine imaginable, from prayer meetings in the senate to membership in societies such as The Fellowship and the secretive Values Action Team. The latter is a confluence of religious conservative organizations including the likes of the Christian Coalition, the Eagle Forum, and Focus on the Family, among others.
Remember Newt Gingrich’s ‘Contract for America?’ Brownback, then a rookie Congressman, refused to sign it. Not because it was too far right, but rather because it wasn’t far right enough to suit him. Brownback promoted the Houses of Worship Act, constructed to allow church endorsements of candidates without sacrificing their tax exemptions.
Pick a wedge issue – any wedge issue - and you’ll find Brownback in the fray. His Republican colleague from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, once quipped that there was a new movie about “two cowboys who go straight and devote their energies to ending stem cell research. It’s called Brownback Mountain.”
Brownback has been at the forefront of the movement to stop embryonic stem cell research and somatic cell nuclear transfer in particular. He has for years promoted an anti-cloning bill, which would criminalize anyone’s participation in SCNT to the tune of 10 years in prison and a fine of a million bucks. |
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Brownback also led the charge in the senate to oppose HR810, when his ‘anti-science’ leadership came into clear focus. In response to HR810 supporters, who presented recommendations from 80 American scientific Nobel laureates, Brownback offered up the artwork of Hannah, a little girl resulting from a snowflake adoption, who provided pencil sketches of embryos (photo right). |
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And when HR810 supporters produced letters from nearly 600 medical organizations, disease foundations and patient advocacy groups, Brownback retold the lecture he gave his daughter about how an eagle emerges from an egg and provided a poster depicting human development - just in case other senators didn’t know where babies came from or how they grew up.
Brownback still continues to falsely proclaim that adult stem cells are curing paralyzed people of spinal cord injuries, allowing them to walk again, as well as hawking the now-debunked David Prentice list of 70 diseases “successfully treated by adult stem cells.”
It is quite clear that if Senator Brownback were stricken by some insidious disease that could be cured by an embryonic stem cell derived treatment he would refuse the therapy. That’s fine. His right to medical autonomy is, and should remain, undeniable. But his philosophy that all Americans should be stripped of their medical autonomy and instead legally subjected to his personal beliefs is simply wrong. Dead wrong. His attempts to halt some of the most promising lines of medical inquiry must be called what it is: “Anti-cures.”
Last week, Brownback completed his preliminary filings for a run at the presidency. Even though many Republicans believe Brownback is too extreme for serious consideration, they do concede he might be viable as a vice presidential candidate, locking in the staunchly conservative base while allowing a more moderate candidate to take the upper berth.
No matter. To the Pro-Cures movement, to millions of patients and their families, this is a dangerous man - one who must not be allowed to rise to the ranks of the executive branch.
Spread the word.
- Jeff Eisen
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