This is not encouraging:

Transcript:

ANNCR: They’re the original mavericks. Leaders. Reformers. Fighting for real change.

John McCain will lead his Congressional allies to improve America’s health.

Stem cell research to unlock the mystery of cancer, diabetes, heart disease.

Stem cell research to help free families from the fear and devastation of illness.

Stem cell research to help doctors repair spinal cord damage, knee injuries, serious burns.

Stem cell research to help stroke victims.

And, John McCain and his Congressional allies will invest millions more in new NIH medical research to prevent disease.

Medical breakthroughs to help you get better, faster.

Change is coming.

McCain-Palin and Congressional allies.

The leadership and experience to really change Washington and improve your health.

Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee.

JOHN MCCAIN: I’m John McCain and I approved this message.

A McCain spokesman spoke to The Hill on what this means regarding his position on research using human embryos:

The ad does not specifically refer to embryonic research, which is opposed by most politicians and activists who, like McCain, do not support abortion rights.

The omission is not a signal that McCain is backing away from his record in favor of embryonic stem cell research, spokesman Brian Rogers said.

“Clearly, John McCain supports it,” he said, emphasizing that the ad is intended to refer to all forms of stem cell research, including experiments using human embryos and those using cells from adults.

Indeed, “change is coming” to Washington. It looks like no matter who is president, we can say goodbye to our current stem cell policy as laid out in the White House stem cell report: Advancing Stem Cell Science Without Destroying Human Life (published Jan. 2007 and updated April 2007) by the Domestic Policy Council. See: John McCain and ESC Research

From the stem cell report:

Embryos are humans in their earliest developmental stage. We do not have to think that human embryos are exactly the same in all ways as older humans to believe that they are entitled to respect and protection. Each of us originated as a single-celled embryo, and from that moment have developed along a continuous biological trajectory throughout our existence. To speak of “an embryo” is to designate a human being at a particular stage.

Our nation was founded on the principle that all of us are created equal, and endowed with a right to exist that is shared fully by all humans. There is no such thing as an excess life. And the fact that a human lacks some particular capacity, or even is going to die, does not justify experimenting on that individual, or exploiting him or her as a natural resource. That has long been the standard in medical ethics—as encoded in the Hippocratic Oath, as well as more modern codes like the Physician’s Oath in the 1948 Declaration of Geneva, which states: “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception.”

A policy that defends the inviolability of human life does not preclude the hopeful possibilities of new findings and new therapies. It simply means we must harness the creative powers of our advancing knowledge only to humane and morally balanced means and ends. Amidst today’s dizzying pace of technological innovation, it is worth taking care to make sure that our moral and ethical policies keep up. The biotechnology revolution will bring sound and wholesome human results over the long run only if it is sensibly governed.

The stem cell debate is only the first in what will be an onrushing train of biotechnology challenges in our future. We must establish a constructive precedent here for taking the moral dimensions of these issues seriously. We must make certain we don’t force ourselves into a false choice between science and ethics—because we need both.

White House stem cell page

Previous posts:
Disability Advocates Need NOT Support ESC Research!
White House Stem Cell Report
News Flash: The Federal Government Funds ESC Research
President Bush Leads on Stem Cell Research