After Election: Where Do We Stand?

The election last night was not primarily about the issues dealt with here at Secondhand Smoke. But there will be an impact. Only time will tell what they are, but here are a few of my initial thoughts.

1. Human Cloning, the status quo will hold: The U.S. Senate will still not be able to pass a comprehensive cloning ban because of filibuster rights in the Senate. Some anti-cloning votes were lost last night in the election, but at least one was gained. Bernie Sanders, the socialist elected as an Independent in Vermont, for example, voted to ban all human cloning whilst in the House of Representatives. (This proves that these issues don’t follow the usual Left/Right paradigm.) I don’t know the positions of the other new senators. But I predict that the current impasse will continue, meaning no explicit cloning authorization, either. Even if the pro cloning side wins a vote to legally license research cloning, Bush will veto. So, I predict no federal action on cloning this session of Congress. Alas.

2. ESCR Federal Funding. The Congress will pass bills to overturn Bush’s federal funding limitations. He will veto. Status quo will continue unless the pro ESCR forces find a way to get the bill into a veto proof format with other issues.

3. Assisted Suicide: No chance to pass a law outlawing the use of federally controlled substances in assisted suicide. But there wasn’t much of one anyway due to filibuster potential in the U.S. Senate.

4. I think great strides can be made in the following areas:
— Ban the purchase and sale of eggs for use in biotechnological research.
— Promote better pain control.
— Ease some of the restrictive rules governing hospice to explicitly permit tube-supplied food and water if that is what the patient desires.
— Hold back the attempts to legalize assisted suicide in the states.
— Prevent PVS from being redefined as “dead.”
— Hold the line against Futile Care Theory.

The struggle over the intrinsic value of human life could not be more important. We cannot afford to allow our disappointments to disable our will.