Four Fibs and a Waffle

George Weigel, writing in the Denver Catholic Register , give a good summary of Barack Obama’s decisions on stem cells, particularly the four fibs and waffle he offered to the American public. Here are the first two fibs:

Fib One: According to the President, his executive order will “lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research.” But as Ryan Anderson, editor of Public Discourse, Ethics, Law and the Common Good, quickly pointed out: “There never was a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush was, in fact, the first president in history to fund embryonic stem cell research.” The Bush compromise was to order funding restrictions that prevented the further destruction of human embryos in order to obtain their stem cells. Federal funding of research using existing stem cell lines was permitted.

Fib Two: President Obama claimed that the Bush compromise was a “false choice between sound science and moral values.” That is a false portrait of the choice Bush made, and of its effects; for by following the path of moral reason, President Bush pushed science in a more fruitful direction, such that stem cells that have the same properties as embryonic stem cells can now be obtained by morally acceptable means. Furthermore, what “moral values” inform an executive order condemning the smallest members of the human family to death?

Read the rest here .