A MASSIVE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN FOR EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH.

On July 10, 2005, about 36 million households received Parade magazine as a Sunday supplement. The cover page was emblazoned with "Now...what the American people think about Stem Cell Research--A New Parade/Research!America Health Poll." Inside, readers found Micah Morrison's article about "the state of stem cell research around the world" and a poll that is the cleverest piece of propaganda yet in support of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).

Morrison reviews the state of ESCR in various countries and suggests that ESCR in the United States is coming up short.

To his credit, Morrison states that "[t]he promise of embryonic stem cell science remains just that--a promise. Adult stem cells, derived primarily from blood, have helped thousands with leukemia and genetic disorders. Embryonic stem cell research, still relatively new, has yet to produce any groundbreaking cell therapy cures--and may never, some critics say. But that hasn't stopped scientists from believing in their potential."

Morrison, however, doesn't inform the reader about the "still relatively new" use of adult stem cells in the restoration of organ function beyond leukemia cures. More importantly, Morrison doesn't tell the reader that the harvesting of embryonic stem cells results in the death of the embryo.

Morrison notes that "[t]here is no federal statute outlawing embryonic stem cell research here--the barriers are largely due to restrictions placed on the use of federal research dollars," but he doesn't explain the reasons for the restrictions. And he concludes with "Can we reach some moral consensus--Or will we slip behind as well-meaning partisans on both sides of the stem cell divide continue their fierce battles over terrain fraught with ethical and moral challenges?" The reader is left to guess about the nature of the "ethical and moral challenges" and why there would be any need for a "moral consensus."

The point of Morrison's article is, of course, not to enlighten the reader about the fundamental, moral objections to ESCR but to demonstrate that in that particular field our country is "behind" other countries because of "restrictions" and "regulations."

In the end, Morrison's article only serves as a "hook" for the real purpose behind addressing the issue: We must go ahead with ESCR because, according to a poll by Parade magazine and Research!America ("a nonprofit public education and advocacy group"), "a majority of Americans support embryonic stem cell research, yet a core minority is consistently opposed to it." (An excerpt of the poll appears in a box on page 5 of the July 10 issue of Parade magazine.)