October 9, 2004 - “We've got to be very careful in balancing the ethics and the science”, the President said, as he reminded the audience that it was his reverence for life that led him to sign an executive order restricting federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research to already existing stem cell lines. Explaining his decision he justified funding that limited research because to source of those lines were already destroyed to isolate the cell lines and thus no new life would be destroyed to create new cell lines. His reverence for the life existing in millions of unused artificially created embryos in fertility clinic freezers may have seemed hollow to the family of 19 year old Jessica Lynn Cawvey when they received word of her death yesterday. Jessica graduated from Mahomet, Illinois High School in May of 2003 and enrolled in Parkland College in nearby Champaign. She also joined the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard based in Paris, Illinois. She was the fifth member of that unit to die in Iraq.

Balancing ethics and a reverence for life with the profits of pharmaceutical companies seems to have had no place in blocking the re-importation of American made drugs in American made bottles from Canada nor in prohibiting Medicare from bargaining with the drug manufacturers to bring down the soaring price of life saving medicines. But then victims of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, or spinal cord injuries do not contribute to the Bush campaign on the scale that the Pharmaceutical industry does. Given a choice between an ethical reverence for life and drug company profits the choice was clear for the President.

Balancing ethics and a reverence for life seems to have no place in the decision to leave affordable health care to “market forces” as another million Americans find themselves without health care coverage. Given a choice between an ethical reverence for life in insuring affordable access to health care for America’s children and preserving tax cuts for Americans in the top one percent of the economic pyramid the choice has been clear for the President.

Balancing ethics and a reverence for life seems to have no place in the question of preserving and improving the air Americans breathe, the water America drinks and the environment in which the world lives. Given a choice between an ethical reverence for life and the profits of big lumber and big energy companies the choice has been clear for the President.

The President is, as he reminded us, faced with many decisions. He couldn’t name even three that he felt were mistakenly decided saving the appointment of a few officials who have resigned to spend more time with their families. It is gratifying that in making one decision he placed an ethical reverence for life in the balance. One wishes he could weigh that same reverence in decisions that determine the quality of life for Americans, old and young and yet to be born.