Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox doesn’t tell the truth about Senator Talent in this ad. Talent does not want to outlaw stem cell research. Rather, he does not support Missouri’s Amendment 2, which would create a constitutional right in Missouri to conduct human cloning—which isn’t the same thing at all.
I find it sad that Fox would use his own tragic disease as an emotional club for political purposes. But since he has, since he placed himself in the center of all of this, people need to know a little more about the story that Fox either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care to tell you. Embryonic stem cells cause tumors when injected into mice. This has been known for years, but the most recent example involved mice with Parkinson’s who were injected with human ES cells—apparently to very bad effect. Nor will using cloned embryos to obtain ES cells—which would be authorized by Amendment 2—solve this seemingly intractable tumor problem.
Ads like Fox’s are shameful in that they pull our emotional heart strings—who could not be touched by seeing anyone with Parkinson’s—without shedding any actual light. Only in this case, deception rather than truth, was the order of the day.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
