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The Senate passed two embryonic stem cell bills sure to create another standoff with the President.  Religion Clause points to Senator Gordon Smith’s floor speech where he explained his decision to vote for the embryonic stem cell funding by reading from Genesis and explained that passages in the Bible lead him to believe that life does not begin until an embryo is emplanted in the mother.
I believe Senator Hatch has used similar reasoning which has been mistaken as official LDS doctrine. That is not so.  The official LDS church position is that there is none.
Of the five LDS Senators, all but Senator Reid voted for S. 30 which funds research for embryos with no chance of survival (which the President supports) and all but Sen. Crapo voted for the bill, S. 5 which expands funding for embryonic stem cell research.
I’m inclined to think it’s inappropriate for the government to fund speculative embryonic stem cell research. Plus, the whole embryonic stem cell issue is so murky, I believe that it is better to err on the side of preserving life.Â
That said, I don’t think Sen. Smith was wrong to use the Biblical passages in support for his views. But I am surprised he did and wonder if someone who opposed the bills and did the same would have not escaped wider attention.
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17 April 2007 at 2:42 pm
Jettboy
Although I won’t say it is specifically LDS doctrine, I do think it is leaning that way as an unofficial belief. There are a lot of LDS doctrines that can be positioned like that. Now, this is pretty recent thoughts on the subject, but are their earlier presidence?
17 April 2007 at 4:16 pm
David
I am unaware of other thoughts on this but for Senator Hatch’s which are discussed in the above linked Slate article.
Similar to abortion, this issue revisits the question of when does the spirit enter the body or when does life really begin? There is plenty of discussion in that regard, but I believe nothing definite.
I recall a Utah poll from a year or so ago that showed most Utahns (I can’t recall if it broke the poll down by religion) didn’t have a problem with stem cell research.
So I may be in the minority on this one. I probably would have voted with Sen. Crapo.
18 April 2007 at 10:57 am
Floyd the Wonderdog
“. . . most Utahns didn’t have a problem with stem cell research.” One way to slant a poll is to avoid specifics. Adult stem cells or embryonic stem cells? Few people have problems with adult stem cell research. By not being specific, the pollster (or reporter) can slant the results of the poll to appear to support their personal bias. Unfortunately, reporters and articles seldom if ever provide a link to the actual poll data and poll questions.
Polls say that LDS aren’t Christian. To steal a line from Forest Gump, “Christian is as Christian does.” As my buddy used to say, “Ten billion flies eat manure, but I’m not going to.” Just because the majority of people believe something, doesn’t make it true or right.
18 April 2007 at 11:13 am
David
Floyd, I completely agree that polls can be very misleading, especially as has been the debate on embryonic stem cells. I believe the public is confused or uninformed of the relevant details as it is a confusing issue but are told its merely about “hope” and “progress.”
I was just recalling what I believe I read in the Des News a while back. Whether the poll reflects informed opinion or not, it still reflects the opinion as framed by the questions. But worse, I fear the poll can be self-reinforcing, where people who are the fence can see their fellow Utahns (and LDS) approve of the issue and then decide it must be okay and settle on that without further thought.
It seems to be that all the positive developments using stem cells (so far) use the adult type but that is downplayed.