"embryo uber alles"

Ellen Goodman reminds us that it ain’t over yet. As she said in her November 20, 2007 op-ed piece (Free registration at the Boston Globe may be necessary),

Democrats, on the other hand, may breathe a sigh of regret. The stem-cell controversy gave pro-choicers an iconic image of their enemy: someone who put the embryo uber alles. It gave progressives a poster girl in Nancy Reagan – and a poster boy in Michael J. Fox. Stem cells were to the left what partial-birth abortion was to the right, a way to frame a touchy issue and look like the reasonable center.

The next time someone has any questions about the source (or existence) of the divisive politics and agendas in the life issues, just point them to Ms. Goodman’s observation.

But first, arm them with the explanation that there’s no such thing as a “fertilized egg” (there’s either an egg or an embryo) and note that the funding for embryonic stem cell research never existed before the President Bush’s policy was set and was never maxed out on the Federal level.