Politics in moderation

[allplainstapped]

Frist Breaks With Bush on Stem-Cell BillOkay, so how is this not hypocritical? I'm not here to pick a fight over abortion rights, I'm just here to analyze the situation. How can someone be pro-life and a "defender of unborn children," yet still support stem-cell research as long as the "the parents had decided that the embryos should be discarded

Comments

[sportyanne]

I don't think politics is ever about consistency. It's about perception. People change their stand on issues all the time it seems. The truth gets redefined, etc. I think he's just trying to seem more moderate.

[ediblemouse]

I can't speak for Frist but I think it's a matter of where you draw the line during a pregnancy. It's one thing to grant personhood to a fetus in a mother that has a heartbeat and can suck it's thumb. It's another to grant personhood to a few cells in a pitri dish that will never be inside a woman and discarded anyway as medical waist.

[ediblemouse]

Which is his out. The Church defines the beginning of life at the moment of conception. Medically, a person is defined at the moment of implantation (when the fertilized egg implants itself in the lining)--interestingly, this is a redefinition. I'm not sure what Frist uses as his definition, but I'm guessing, as a doctor, he goes with the latter, which I suppose is how he can claim not to be contradictory.

[allplainstapped]

that last one was me. i got logged out somehow.

[sportyanne]

Does science define personhood? Or is that left to lawmakers?