Good News Is No News

This attitude plays right into the hands of the mainstream press, because it fits their cherished stereotypes about the courageous benefactors of mankind fighting for their independence from narrow-minded, anti-research religious cranks. Stereotypes trump the evidence. The kind of thing also gives the press an opportunity to beat up on President Bush, who has taken the reasoned position of not funding any new embryonic stem cell research lines.

So people like Wesley Smith, who are advocating a course that would benefit untold numbers of patients, have been accused of being inhumane toward suffering people. And bad news about embryonic stem cells gets censored?such as the fact that they are causing tumors in animal studies.

So when you read the papers and see scientists and stars testifying in Congress about cloning and embryonic stem cell research, beware. Don?t just listen to the rhetoric?look at the evidence. Then help educate your neighbors. In this case, as in so many others, the best scientific answer is also the right one morally. And if the press won?t say it, we must.

For further reading and information:

In a phone call to March for Life attendees in Washington, D.C., yesterday, President Bush noted that his administration is ?opposed to the destruction of embryos for stem cell research? and went on to say that ?above all, we must continue with civility and respect to remind our fellow citizens that all life is sacred and worthy of protection.?

Visit the website of the President?s Council on Bioethics .

Wesley J. Smith, ? Stem Cell News That Isn?t Fit for Print ,? Daily Standard, 3 December 2003 .

Wesley J. Smith, ? Spinning Stem Cells ,? National Review Online, 23 April 2002 .

Wesley J. Smith, Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (Encounter, 2002).

William Allen, ? Cloning opponents to make major push to ban research ,? Louisville Courier-Journal, 23 November 2003 . (Note the correction at the top of the page; apparently someone managed to get the message through to the editors.)

Ted Olsen, ? Weblog: Renewed Hope for Adult Stem Cell Research ,? Christianity Today Online, 30 December 2003 .

Steven Ertelt, ? Associated Press Corrects Stem Cell Story with Erroneous Info ,? LifeNews.com, 7 January 2004 .

Rich Tucker, ? What are we missing? ? Townhall.com, 4 March 2002 .

Gina Dalfonzo , ? Copying from the Same Script ,? BreakPoint Online, 10 November 2003 .

Learn more about bioethics issues at the Council for Biotechnology Policy website . Sign up for its free monthly ?Biotech Policy Update.?

Also visit the websites of the Center for Bioethics and Culture and Americans to Ban Cloning for more biotech information.

BreakPoint Commentary No. 031007, ? Antics with Semantics: Why ?Pro-Life? Means Pro-Life .?

A great resource for pastors, church leaders, and everyone concerned with pro-life issues, the BreakPoint Culture of Life Packet includes the Family Research Council booklet, ?Building a Culture of Life: A Call to Respect Human Dignity in American Life,? and a ?BreakPoint This Week? CD interview with William Saunders of Family Research Council in which he discusses what citizens can do to make a difference for life. The CD also includes a speech by Dr. Robert George, ?Bioethics and the Clash of Orthodoxies.?