Life Links 4/26/07

Michigan legislator Mark Meadows shows he doesn't seem to understand what he is talking about with regards to embryonic stem cell research in Michigan and human cloning.


Meanwhile, Wesley Smith writes about a poll commissioned by the Michigan Catholic Conference on human cloning and embryonic stem cell research.

The poll's results (besides showing the public isn't gung-ho on killing human embryos) indicate to me that some of the general public really doesn't understand these issues at all. For example, the responses to questions 2 and 3 would indicate the public is more opposed to killing embryos for stem cells than cloning embryos for stem cells. Which seems peculiar because from my memory of polls, people are typically more opposed to creating and destroying embryos as opposed to just killing them. You'd, of course, need to kill the cloned embryos for their stem cells but the question doesn't say that. I'm guessing a fair number of the respondents didn't understand the cloned human embryos would have to be killed for their stem cells.


Ramesh Ponnuru on the Freedom of Choice Act.

As in past Congresses, the act includes the ludicrous "finding" that "Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, an estimated 1,200,000 women each year were forced to resort to illegal abortions. . ." This claim, a favorite of Boxer, is based on dubious studies and makes no sense. There were 900,000 abortions in 1974 and 1 million in 1975. Are we really supposed to believe that the nationwide legalization of abortion caused the number of abortions to drop?