Plan to Fight Stem Cell Research

NOTE: Senator Bill Frist ruined this piece by actually agreeing to the new stem cell bill.

The current debate over stem cell research has caused many people to think hard about their beliefs concerning embryos. Some who are opposed to abortion are realizing that allowing frozen embryos to be used for research instead of being destroyed is in the greater good. Others are now realizing that those frozen embryos should be saved from destruction and adopted by others.

Those in Congress who have come to this conclusion have a new battle cry. “You, too, were an embryo once!” Representative Mike Ferguson(R-NJ) cried in Congress when a bill allowing more stem cell research was debated. Now that the bill has passed the house, it must find its way through the Senate.

Most observers have realized the Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) opposed the bill. Reports have said that Frist is not likely to allow the bill to be debated on the Senate floor. This would make it difficult, but not impossible, for a Senate bill to be passed. What the public does not know is what Frist plans to do next.

Close allies have revealed that the debate has opened the Senators eyes to the full scale of the problem. This idea of stored potential life has infuriated him. Not only does he want to see this destruction continue in any form.

“You were an egg once, too, you know. We must work to stop the wanton destruction of viable eggs in our lifetime.”

Frist has apparently been consulting medical researchers to find some way to preserve eggs before menstruation. A reproductive researcher who would not go on record stated that he thought within 3 years a safe over the counter (OTC) method could be found. The hardest parts are said to be determining ovulation accurately enough, and storing the eggs under household storage circumstances.

An anonymous source provided some details of Frist’s plans from the secret notes of a congressional aid. The first step will be to fund the research to retrieve and store eggs from young women. The Senator also plans to provide seed money for the OTC product to be sold in major pharmaceutical outlets.

Once the biological problems are solved, the Congress will have to take up the social problems. While the first few periods a young woman has are not believed to destroy viable eggs, the process will still have to be started fairly young. The plan expects that it will be possible to link federal education money to support for early education in egg harvesting.

To increase compliance, obviously legal penalties are the best options. The plan acknowledges that criminal punishment would be a hard sell, some kind of civil penalty might be an easier place to start. Perhaps it could start as a federal tax break.

Birth control pills were a possible sticking point mention in the notes. Since they stop menstruation, some might feel they are a viable alternative. The hope is that the research sponsored by the bill would also prove that birth control pills still cause long term damage to eggs.

With the right Supreme Court nominees, and these bills, the senator hopes to end all destruction of unborn life before he retires from Congress.